Mark Carney, soon to become Canada’s new prime minister, is a two-time central banker and crisis fighter about to face his biggest challenge of all: steering Canada through Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Liberals announced Carney as Justin Trudeau’s successor on Sunday, March 9th, after party members voted in a nominating contest. Trudeau resigned in January, facing low approval ratings after nearly a decade in office.
The 59-year-old Carney is a political outsider who has never held office, which would, in normal times, have killed his candidacy in Canada. But distance from Trudeau and a high-profile banking career played to his advantage, and Carney argues he is the only person prepared to handle Trump.
“I know how to manage crises … in a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, you need negotiating skills,” Carney said during a leadership debate late last month.
Carney was born in Fort Smith in the remote Northwest Territories. He attended Harvard, where he played college-level ice hockey, starring as a goalkeeper.
Carney, who garnered the most party endorsements and the most money raised among the four Liberal candidates, will soon be the first person to become Canadian prime minister without being a legislator and without having had any cabinet experience.
He argues Canada must fight Trump’s tariffs with dollar for dollar retaliation and diversify trading relations in the medium term.
In the next election, which must be held by October 20, the Liberals will face off against the official opposition, the Conservatives, whose leader, Pierre Poilievre, is a career politician with little international exposure.
San Miguel Times
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