Carney: Canada might help vessels sail Strait of Hormuz if there is a ceasefire

OTTAWA – Canada might join efforts to ensure ships can move freely through the Strait of Hormuz if there is a ceasefire in the Persian Gulf, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday.

“There are conversations with our NATO partners — some NATO partners — concerning what we can do with a ceasefire, at the moment there is a ceasefire, in order to restore the movement of vessels,” Carney told reporters Thursday in French.

“That’s the conversation. These are ongoing conversations,” he added at a news conference in Halifax, where he was announcing that Canada had hit its NATO spending target for the first time.

Tehran blockaded the strait in response to the U.S. and Israel launching a war on Iran a month ago. On March 19, Canada issued a joint statement with allies and partners expressing a willingness to contribute to efforts to reopen the strait.

Carney’s comments provide the clearest scenario Ottawa has offered yet of how it might get involved, after saying multiple times that it’s taking part in conversations with partners about some sort of assistance.

Carney also defended Thursday the limited information his government has released about the war, saying proactive disclosure could endanger troops.

The government has been criticized for not telling the public about potential damage to Canadian assets at a Kuwait airbase.

Carney noted the government only disclosed the movement of Canadian troops out of Iraq once they had left, alongside other NATO soldiers.

“It’s a matter of keeping the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces safe and sound,” he said in French. “There is a time to disclose the details of those events, not necessarily in real time, because there’s a war going on.”

Also Thursday, Global Affairs Canada officials testified that they never expected that strikes against Iran’s senior leadership would prompt a successful popular uprising to oust the regime.

“It’s not really surprising that cutting the head off the snake doesn’t make the entire operation crumble,” Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister, told the Senate foreign affairs committee.

He added that Canada could help in a future scenario where the global community reintegrates Iran, likely under different leadership.

“Where we do think Canada has a role to play is … with a small group of trusted countries, we can add our voice and propose logical, attainable ideas, principles for facilitating future mediation talks,” said Lévêque.

“We would very much like to see a different governance, a different type of leadership in Iran that respects its people.”

He added that the government won’t speculate on how such a transition might occur, or whether that would require “regime change.”

Before the war, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said last month that Canada would not restore diplomatic relations with Iran until “regime change” occurs. The Harper government cut diplomatic ties in 2012.

Earlier Thursday, Ottawa announced more sanctions against people and entities tied to Iran, this time for businesspeople and companies involved in procuring weaponry.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2026.