Key points
- Carney has been elected as the next prime minister of Canada
- Canada must hold elections by October but could well see a snap poll within weeks
- Carney has received doctoral degree in economics from Oxford University
- He served as a banker and UN envoy in the past
OTTAWA: Canada’s Liberal Party overwhelmingly elected Mark Carney as the country’s next prime minister Sunday.
AFP reported that Carney lost no time taking a defiant stance against a US president he accused of “attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses.”
“We cannot let him succeed,” added the 59-year-old, who will take over from outgoing Liberal leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the coming days.
Canada must hold elections by October but could well see a snap poll within weeks. Current polls put the opposition Conservatives as slight favourites’, according to AFP.
In his victory speech to a boisterous crowd of party supporters in Ottawa, Carney warned the United States under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country,” he said.
“These are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.”
Carney soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who held several senior cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015, AFP reported.
In a post on X, he said: “We’re strongest when we are united.”
Thank you.
We’re strongest when we are united. pic.twitter.com/H9RPrJNf4Y
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) March 9, 2025
“Now let’s build a stronger Canada, together”, he added in another post.
Thank you.
Now let’s build a stronger Canada, together. pic.twitter.com/G3IRNXIUGB
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) March 10, 2025
Who is Mark Carney?
Carney is 59. He was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, on March 16, 1965, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, according to US media reports.
Education
Carney received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, and master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Oxford University.
Career highlights
Carney ran the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, AP reported. After helping Canada manage the worst impacts of the 2008 financial crisis, he was recruited to become the first non-Brit to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.
In 2020, he began serving as the United Nations’ special envoy for climate action and finance.
Carney is a former Goldman Sachs executive. He worked for 13 years in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto, before being appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003.
Citizenship
AP reported that Carney has Canadian, UK and Irish citizenship. He has moved to eventually have solely Canadian citizenship, which is not needed by law but seen as politically wise.
The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.
Delivering a farewell address before the results were announced, Trudeau said “Canadians face from our neighbour an existential challenge.”
