March 10, 2025 - 10:00am
The contest to succeed Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada has produced its expected result: ex-central bank governor Mark Carney won an overwhelming first ballot victory with 85.9% of the party electorate’s vote. The Liberal grassroots have effectively signalled a desire to start afresh, rejecting ex-Trudeau minister Chrystia Freeland in favour of the political novice Carney.
The 59-year-old is set to navigate what is probably the most tense and volatile period of Canadian politics in 30 years. Vowing to scrap the unpopular Trudeau consumer carbon tax and capital gains tax hike, the former Bank of England governor has promised to chart a more pro-business course for the embattled governing party.
Carney will ascend to the post of prime minister in the following days without yet being an elected member of Parliament. However, he may be able to find a seat in the House of Commons soon by calling an early election. The new Liberal chief will want to capitalise on a major Trump-induced polling shift that has revived his party’s fortunes (even Trudeau received a big popularity boost).
Canada is, of course, in the crosshairs of the US administration’s aggressive and unpredictable trade war; and though a temporary partial tariff reprieve was granted, Canadians are expecting high-stakes economic brinkmanship to resume within days. It was against this backdrop of total uncertainty that Carney pitched himself as the experienced policy hand who could steer the country through the latest crisis — as he had during the financial meltdown of 2008. However, it should also be noted that this part of his record has come under attack from then-Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, who is disputing the Liberal leader’s claims of success. Another elder statesman, former UK chancellor George Osborne, defended Carney, praising his time at the Bank of England.
Carney’s other great strength, his extensive private sector experience, has also been targeted, with Right-wing sources pinning the blame on him for the relocation of the head office of Canadian asset management giant Brookfield — in which he served as chair — from Toronto to New York. Carney has so far weathered these charges, but questions persist around his corporate decisions and personal wealth. This may come back to bite him in a general election campaign as his chief rival, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, could use this line of attack against a man he will surely depict as an out-of-touch elite. Poilievre has seen his commanding lead threatened by Carney’s rise and the two are now neck-and-neck.
In fighting both Trump and Poilievre, Carney will confront a series of challenges not just to his nascent government but also to the endangered brand of managerial technocracy that he so perfectly embodies. As in 2015, at the start of the Trudeau era, when Canada seemed to stand athwart the populist revolution sweeping the Western world, Carney’s could see a dramatic resurgence of centre-left liberalism. Or, depending on any number of variables, it could amount to the shortest ministry in Canadian history. Anything could happen and, in keeping with the hockey metaphors he is fond of using, it now falls to Carney to go elbows up.
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SubscribeCarney himself is poison. He is Trudeau on steroids. I understand that his baby, Brookfield, is now under the microscope of the investigative journalist who exposed the fraud within Wirecard. That ought be be enlightening…
There will be lots of fake news coming out of that I am sure
Carney himself is poison.
I think you’re being much too kind.
Carney is a Davos talking shop green zealot. We need to discard everything he stands for and start fresh.
If McKinsey and Davos didn’t already exist, carney would invent them.
Carney seems to have more chance now thanks to Don J naffing off most Canadians. You can see he already senses that’s the defining election issue. He may well be right.
Much can happen between now and Oct though.
There will be an election before summer, they won’t wait
Yes seen that’s the thinking now and makes sense.
Carney, Brookfield, WEF, net zero, ESG, IMF, the World Bank and the UN.
With the winding down of ESG and the dramatic changes that are starting to occur with Net Zero and Realism globally, personally I think Carney was out of work at Brookfield basically. Carney is not Brookfield, Bruce Flatt is. Carney was given a vice chairmanship with them to see if they couldn’t capitalize on the net zero-ESG trademark. Didn’t work out never mind fiduciary duties to the shareholders. There was no business to be had, no money to be made. He’s turned to the hard side of politics. He might soon be having meetings with the likes of Wab Kinew or Doug Ford. Quite a descent from such lofty peaks.
Is Canada a Ukraine to the US’s Russia.
A new PM that no one voted for
Mark Carney can’t be Prime Minister for long without holding a seat in the House of Commons. If he is appointed by the Governor-General in the next few days, he either needs to get an MP to stand down in a ‘safe’ Liberal riding and stand in a by-election, or call an election for no later than May, have the G-G dissolve Parliament, and fight it as Leader.
The British example of Sir Alec Douglas-Home in October 1963 shows that a PM without a seat (he had been a Peer) needs to get one through a by-election quickly, which Sir Alec did – he was elected for West Perthshire the following month. The General Election was not until October 1964 so he served for a year as PM.
The Liberals, finally conceding the obvious that Trudeau was loathed to the point of un-electability, tried to sell Carney as an ‘outsider’ without any awkward baggage. A few minutes of googling put a pin in that balloon. Aside from being Trudeau’s trusted financial advisor for the last few years (which is why Trudeau picked him) he’s a confirmed Davos Man as dedicated as anyone to the de-bunked WEF theories of “stake-holder capitalism”. Save the planet and create millions of high-paying Green jobs doing it. Hey , it hasn’t worked anywhere else so why wouldn’t it not work here? His economic kickstart plan depends (still) on government ‘seed money’ (aka taxpayer-funded subsidies) to promote business ventures that tick the same Net Zero/ESG/DEI boxes that are already being erased out of corporate mission statements everywhere. He has yet to renounce Net Zero. Climate taxes are being moved to other revenue areas in the hopes that grateful taxpayers won’t realize they’re still paying them – just differently.
You wouldn’t think his tired, outdated and failed economic policies could gain any electoral traction but Trudeau and his magic socks managed it for ten years and right now tariff-terrified Canadians are all for supporting any self-described anti-Trump knight no matter how tarnished his armour is. The Conservatives are going to have to campaign wisely if they want to convince voters that the dragon that needs slaying is in Ottawa, not Washington.
Work on the headline. “Cling” does not require the adverb “on.” And no, “on” is not a preposition as used here; it is an adverb.
Carney is beyond horrible. An over ambitious failure.
We in the UK were delighted to see the back of Carney who, as Governor of the Bank of England, did us no favours. He is socialist to the core; a globalist who is fanatical about the transfer of wealth from the developed to the undeveloped world under the guise of climate change policy. Don’t forget that he was appointed to head the Bank of England by Gordon Brown, that most socialist of UK premiers. Carney is very bad news indeed. You are more than welcome to have him back in Canada. I just hope Canadians retain a sense of reason in their forthcoming general election and don’t vote in Carney as a kick against The Donald. You’re in for a bum ride if you end up with him as your elected PM! Just make sure he stays in Canada and doesn’t return to the UK to deliver more damage here!