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Carney didn鈥檛 name Trudeau as the missing piece of this new federal cabinet, but his message 鈥� that this is the not-Trudeau cabinet 鈥� was crystal clear.聽

鈥淐anadians elected us with a mandate for change. So there is a great deal of change in this cabinet, by necessity,鈥� Carney said, boasting that he鈥檇 created a 鈥減erfect鈥� mix by building a team that鈥檚 made up of half rookies, half experienced聽hands.聽

The other message that it sends is that this is a prime minister not afraid to cut people loose, even those Carney installed around him when he did his first shuffle after winning the leadership, such as Toronto鈥檚 Nate Erskine-Smith and Bill Blair, or Jonathan Wilkinson from British Columbia.聽

While the cuts were no doubt brutal to those who didn鈥檛 get the call for cabinet this time, it鈥檚 not the worst reputation for Carney to acquire early, as a prime minister who won鈥檛 cling to ministers when it鈥檚 time for them to move on.聽

Trudeau showed flashes of this during his time as Liberal leader too, but Carney is laying down the law with his ministers before most of them have had a chance to hire their own teams.聽

One other big difference Carney seemed keen to establish is that his PMO won鈥檛 be holding hands of any ministers, new or old.聽

鈥淭his cabinet is smaller and more focused than those of previous governments,鈥� Carney said. 鈥淚t will operate with a commitment to true cabinet government, with everyone expected and empowered to show leadership, bring new ideas, to have a clear focus and to take decisive actions to accomplish their work in聽a return to more traditional cabinet.鈥�

That鈥檚 a delicate, but definite criticism of how Carney saw Trudeau鈥檚 government operating 鈥斅爐oo much from the centre, where decisions or problems pile up and can take ages to be resolved.聽

Whether Carney can pull that off is another question. Trudeau came to the job of PM promising to decentralize government too, but this is a world in which many issues don鈥檛 fit into neat, ministerial boxes, with plenty of overlap, and the PMO is often needed to oversee developments that span multiple ministries.聽

Carney is also so far displaying strict discipline over who speaks for his government at the moment. He said several times on Tuesday that the buck stops with him on all matters dealing with Canada-U.S. relations and Donald Trump. And as was the case a week ago when Carney met with Trump, Carney did all the talking on Tuesday 鈥� not any of his new or old ministers.聽

This too could be at odds with his vow to cultivate 鈥渢rue ministerial government,鈥� with cabinet members speaking for themselves without waiting for the go-ahead from the PMO.聽

The new Carney cabinet isn鈥檛 totally exorcised of the ghost of Trudeau, as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was eager to point out on Tuesday,聽 listing all the old ministers who had survived the Carney cuts. Poilievre is predicting that Trudeau policies on everything from housing to the environment are just being repackaged.聽

鈥淢r. Carney talked a good game about reversing liberal policies in these areas, but now we have to find out if he was serious, and so far, it’s not a promising start,鈥� he said.聽

Carney has stuck to Trudeau鈥檚 policy 鈥� an innovation in 2015 鈥� of gender parity in cabinet and he restored a ministry in charge of women鈥檚 issues, which was cut in his first聽try at cabinet-making, to much criticism.聽

This is a sign 鈥� a welcome one 鈥� that Carney is still learning on the job and that he and his team have聽been hearing the criticism about the 鈥渂ro culture鈥� that seemed to be swirling around the early team coalescing around the new Liberal leader.聽

Trudeau has kept himself far from the spotlight, deliberately so, since Carney took over and it鈥檚 unclear how much the two men would be talking these days, though there鈥檚 no real sign of bad blood between them.

Trudeau was present in one way at the swearing-in on Tuesday, with the choice of Marjorie Michel as Canada鈥檚 new health minister. Michel, who served as deputy chief of staff to Trudeau, ran and won in her old boss鈥檚 Papineau riding in Quebec and Trudeau did show up to help her during the campaign.

Trudeau was probably expecting Carney to put some distance between them with this new聽ministry, so he likely shrugged off a lot of the not-Trudeau talk. But Michel鈥檚 appointment would have heartened him 鈥� Papineau still has a seat at the cabinet table.