Toronto — Canada’s Liberal Party has chosen veteran central bank leader Mark Carney as its new leader, meaning he will quickly replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the country’s top office. The transition, and Trudeau’s political downfall, comes amid the chaotic trade war with Canada’s closest ally launched by President Trump.
The exact date that Carney will take office as Canada’s prime minister remains uncertain. The timing of the transition will be determined by Carney in conjunction with Trudeau.
Carney won nearly 86% of the more than 151,000 votes cast. The next closest candidate received 11,144 votes.
The new leader will inherit a government led by a party which has seen its support among the Canadian electorate wane significantly over the past few years. With opposition parties eager to trigger an election, the situation is becoming increasingly urgent. Carney’s government could be toppled by Parliament to call for a new national election, which can be called any time between the Parliament going back into session on March 24 and October 20, by which time a vote must be held.
Trudeau announced in January that he would step down as party leader and, with the move, from his role as the prime minister, due to increasing pressure from within the Liberal Party as polls showed its support among voters tanking.
Trudeau’s resignation announcement paved the way for the Liberal Party to chose a new leader, and Carney won that internal party election on Sunday — and many Canadians will hope to see him quickly form a new cabinet and then put his decades of financial experience to work as the country confronts Mr. Trump’s trade war.
Who is Mark Carney?
Born in Fort Smith, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Carney grew up in Edmonton before heading to the U.S. to pursue a degree in economics at Harvard University. He later moved to the U.K. and earned a master’s degree and then, in 1995, a doctorate in economics from the prestigious University of Oxford.
He was appointed as the Governor of the Bank of Canada — akin to the Federal Reserve in the U.S. — in 2008, amid the global financial crisis, which he helped to steer Canada through.
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Carney’s influence has extended well beyond Canada, however, and not only because he led one of its most important central government institutions. In 2010, Time Magazine named him among the world’s 25 most influential leaders. In 2011, Reader’s Digest Canada named him the “Most Trusted Canadian,” and the editors of Euromoney magazine named him Central Bank Governor of the Year in 2012.
During his tenure as Canada’s central banker, he also held several high-profile international positions, including as chair of the Committee on the Global Financial System and head of the Financial Stability Board for the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies.
Between 2013 and 2020, Carney moved back to Britain after being tapped as the Governor of the Bank of England, heading up the U.K.’s central bank and helping to guide the country through the economic convulsions brought on by its “Brexit” from the European Union. He was the first non-U.K. citizen to govern the institution in its 300-year history.
More recently, Carney served as the United Nations’ special envoy on climate action and finance and as head of transition investing at the Brookfield Asset Management firm. He stepped down from both of those positions to pursue his Liberal Party leadership bid.
Carney’s reaction to Trump
Mr. Trump’s trade war and his frequent threats to make Canada a U.S. “51st state” were hot topics during the Liberal Party leadership campaign. Carney, along with the other candidates, emphasized the importance of a strong domestic economy in the face of those threats.
Carney said Canada had allowed its economy to become “weak,” leaving it susceptible to Mr. Trump’s tariff-based pressure tactics. He said Canada was experiencing one of the worst economic crises in its history, and that overcoming it would require major reforms to ensure long-term strength and stability.
“I know how to manage crises,” Carney said during a debate for his party’s leadership. “I know how to build strong economies.”
As prime minister, he said he would impose dollar-to-dollar reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports in a trade war and leverage Canada’s role as a vital supplier of energy and uranium to its southern neighbor.
“It’s important to distinguish what you can’t control, what we can control. We can’t change Donald Trump, but we can control our economic destiny,” he said during a debate.
