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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Canada has a new prime minister. Mark Carney has been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Canada, replacing Justin Trudeau amid historic tensions and fears of a trade war with the United States, Al Jazeera reports.
The Liberal Party announced Carney as Justin Trudeau’s successor on Sunday, March 9, 2025, after party members voted in a nomination contest. Trudeau stepped down in January, facing low approval ratings after nearly a decade in office, according to Reuters.
But who is Mark Carney, a name not widely known in Canadian politics? What policies does he plan to implement, and will he be able to boost the Liberals’ fortunes in the upcoming federal election against the powerful Conservatives?
Oxford graduate
Born in Canada, Carney is a devout Catholic originally from Fort Smith, Canada. He turns 60 next week and passed his first political test on Sunday, winning the Liberal leadership by impressing party supporters, Citynews Montreal reports.
He is known as a skilled economist but has no prior experience in the political arena. The only practical experience he has — aside from years of allowing speculation to swirl that he might launch a bid for the party’s leadership — he gained over the past two months in the very short-lived leadership race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Friends say it is his other qualities, not his political acumen but his core liberal values, sparkling resume, strategic thinking and witty banter, that have endeared him to Liberals.
Carney has indeed presented himself as a political outsider who can steer Canada through a period of economic turmoil and uncertainty. His education and career have bolstered Canadians’ hopes for a leader who can stand up to the hardline style of Donald Trump in the U.S.
He holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford and spent more than a decade at the investment firm Goldman Sachs. Most recently, he served as chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, where he also led the firm’s “transition investing” — an effort to promote investments aligned with global climate goals.
But it is his banking experience in times of crisis that Carney and his supporters say best demonstrates his ability to help Canada weather the Trump storm.
Carney began his tenure as governor of the Bank of Canada in the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis, and he is credited with taking swift and decisive action that helped save Canada from a more serious downturn.
In 2013, Carney left to lead the Bank of England, where he remained until 2020 – the year Britain formally left the European Union.
There, he also became known for minimising the impact of Brexit – although his assessment that the EU breakup posed risks to the UK economy drew the ire of conservatives who supported leaving the bloc. “He was an innovative and inventive central banker,” said Will Hutton, an author, columnist and president of the British Academy of Social Sciences.
Hutton told Al Jazeera that Carney understood that central banks had a duty to make capitalism as legitimate as possible by counteracting its worst tendencies. “And he was shocked by Brexit, which he thought was self-defeating, but he managed to manage the Bank of England’s behaviour so that it was less bad than it could have been,” Hutton said.
Lack of Political Experience
While few would dispute Carney’s economic credentials, his lack of electoral experience has raised questions. Carney has never run for political office before, and he spent much of the Liberal leadership campaign introducing himself to Canadians.
Daniel Beland, a political science lecturer at McGill University, described Carney as a “technocrat on steroids.” “He’s a behind-the-scenes guy, an advisor,”
Carney has made a wide-ranging promise since launching his campaign, including reining in government spending, investing more in housing, diversifying Canada’s trading partners and temporarily restricting immigration.
A former UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, Carney is also a strong proponent of the idea that the private sector should take a leadership role in addressing the climate crisis and achieving net-zero emissions.
During debates with fellow Liberal leadership candidates last month, he touted his experience. "I know how to manage a crisis. I know how to build a strong economy," he said.
Beland told Al Jazeera that the Liberal leadership contest largely failed to test Carney because his main opponent was his longtime friend and former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. The pair did not attack each other much during the race.
Beland said the contest was not the best test for Carney, who has no political experience and will face fiery opposition leaders such as Conservative Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Quebecois Blanchet in this year's federal election.
The Trump factor
But Beland said Canadians are currently less concerned with domestic issues than the uncertainty surrounding Canada-US relations and Trump's tariffs.
Indeed, concerns about a trade war with Washington have helped boost support for the Liberals in recent weeks. Polls show the party has narrowed its 26 percentage point deficit behind the Conservatives.
The future of Canada-U.S. relations is likely to be a major question in the upcoming election, and Canadians are evenly divided on which leader is better suited to handle the U.S. president.
An Angus Reid Institute poll released this week showed Carney ahead by 9 percentage points. About 43 per cent of respondents said they had a lot of confidence in him to handle Trump, compared with 34 per cent for Poilievre.
Now it’s Carney’s turn to lead Canada. His political mettle will soon be tested, with political talk in Ottawa about the next federal election likely to be imminent, and a call expected in the coming weeks after he is sworn in as prime minister.
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