Ex-central banker Mark Carney to become Canada’s next PM

Ottawa: Former central banker Mark Carney has won the race to become leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party and is expected to succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister within days.

Carney will take over at a tumultuous time in Canada, which is amid a trade war with longtime ally the United States and must hold a general election soon.

Mark Carney speaks during a leadership debate in Montreal last month.Credit: AP

Carney took 86 per cent of the vote to beat former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who came second in a contest in which only about 150,000 party members voted on Sunday (Monday AEDT).

Trudeau announced in January that he would step down after more than nine years in power as his approval rating plummeted, forcing the ruling Liberal Party to run a quick contest to replace him.

“Make no mistake, this is a nation-defining moment,” Trudeau said. “Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given.

“Now, as Canadians face, from our neighbour, an existential challenge, an economic crisis, Canadians are showing exactly what we are made of.”

Who is Mark Carney?

The 59-year-old Carney is a political outsider who has never held a political office, which would, in normal times, have killed his candidacy in Canada.

However, his distance from Trudeau and his high-profile banking career played to his advantage. Carney argues he is the only person prepared to handle US President Donald Trump.

In 2018 as Bank of England governor.Credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas

Born in Fort Smith in the remote Northwest Territories, Carney attended Harvard, where he played college-level ice hockey, starring as a goalkeeper.

He is a globetrotter who spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs before being named deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He left in November 2004 for a top finance ministry job and returned to become governor of the central bank in 2008 at the age of just 42.

Carney won praise for his handling of the global financial crisis when he created new emergency loan facilities and gave unusually explicit guidance on keeping rates at record-low levels for a specific period of time.

The Bank of England was impressed enough to poach him in 2013, making him the first non-British governor in the central bank’s three-century history and the first person to ever head two G7 central banks.

Britain’s then-chancellor George Osborne described Carney as the “outstanding central bank governor of his generation”.

Carney, though, had a challenging time in the UK, forced to face zero inflation and the political chaos of Brexit.

He struggled to deploy his trademark policy of signalling the likely path of interest rates. The bank said its guidance came with caveats, but media often interpreted it as more of a guarantee, with Labour Party MP Pat McFadden dubbing the bank under Carney as an “unreliable boyfriend”.

When the pound tumbled in the hours after the 2016 Brexit referendum, Carney delivered a televised address to reassure markets that the bank would turn on the liquidity taps if needed.

“Mark has a rare ability to combine a central banker’s steady hand with a political reformer’s eye to the future,” said Ana Botin, Santander Bank’s executive chairman, in a written comment to Reuters. She said Carney had “steadied the ship” in the UK after Brexit.

But Carney infuriated Brexit supporters by talking about the economic damage likely to be caused by leaving the European Union. Conservative politician and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg called him the “high priest of project fear”, but Carney said it was his duty to talk about such risks.

Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cheers as Mark Carney delivers his victory speech after winning the Liberal Party leadership.Credit: AP

Carney also showed irritation with his predecessor in the job, Mervyn King, whom he said had not spotted the risks building in the financial sector before the 2007-08 financial crisis.

From 2011 to 2018 Carney also headed the Financial Stability Board, which co-ordinates financial regulation for the G20 economies.

After leaving the Bank of England in 2020, Carney served as a United Nations envoy on finance and climate change.

A political novice, Carney argued that he was best placed to revive Canada’s Liberal Party and oversee trade negotiations with Donald Trump, who is threatening additional tariffs that could cripple the country’s export-dependent economy.

Carney was the front-runner, with the most endorsements from party members and the most money raised among the four Liberal candidates.

During the campaign, he said he supported dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs against the US and a co-ordinated strategy to boost investment.

He has repeatedly complained the country’s rate of growth under Trudeau was not good enough.

‘Rallying around the flag moment’

The prospect of a fresh start for the Liberals, combined with Trump’s tariffs and his repeated taunts to annex Canada as the 51st US state, led to a remarkable revival of the party’s fortunes.

At the start of 2025, the party trailed by 20 or more points but is now statistically tied in several polls with the official opposition Conservatives, led by career politician Pierre Poilievre.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre at a Canada First rally in Ottawa on February 15.Credit: Bloomberg

“There is a rallying around the flag moment that we would never have predicted a year ago,” said University of British Columbia politics professor Richard Johnston. “I think it’s probably true as we speak that the Liberals have been saved from oblivion.”

Carney can legally serve as prime minister without a seat in the House of Commons, but tradition dictates that he should seek to win one as soon as possible. Two Liberal Party sources said Carney would call an election in the coming weeks.

At his victory speech, Carney had strong words to say: “Everything in my life has prepared me for this moment. Two months ago, I put my hand up to run for leader because I felt we needed big changes guided by strong Canadian values.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney gestures to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he delivers his victory speech.Credit: AP

“Right now, all Canadians are being asked to serve in their own ways. We are all being called to stand up for each other and for the Canadian way of life. I know these are dark days. Dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.

“We’re getting over the shock, but let us never forget the lessons. We have to look after ourselves. And we have to look out for each other. We need to pull together in the tough days ahead. We can – and will – get through this crisis.”

Polls, though, indicate that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives would be able to form a majority government. An election must be held by October 20.

Liberals sought to compare Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to Trump in a recent advertisement. Poilievre, in turn, ramped up attacks on Carney on Sunday.

The Liberals “are going to pull a sneaky trick tonight”, Poilievre said at a campaign rally. “They’re going to try to get elected for a fourth term by replacing Justin Trudeau with his economic adviser, Mark Carney … Donald Trump will have a big smile on his face.”

Carney has played down any role in advising Trudeau, noting that his many global obligations left him with little time. He has resigned from all commercial posts after he launched his leadership bid.

What are Carney’s views of Trump?

Carney delivered a rebuke to the US president shortly before securing the party leadership.

“There’s someone who’s trying to weaken our economy. Donald Trump has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we earn a living. He’s attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses. We can’t let him succeed, and we won’t.

Carney won the race to become Canada’s next prime minister, just as the Trump administration threatens Canada’s economic future.Credit: Bloomberg

“The Canadian government is rightly retaliating with our own tariffs that will have maximum impact in the US and minimum impact here in Canada. My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect – and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade.

“We can’t change Donald Trump. We can control our economic destiny with a plan that puts more money in your pockets … We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away.”

Reuters, Bloomberg

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