Amidst a genetic crisis in Canada’s relationship with the United States, the Canadian Liberal Party on Sunday chose an uninitiated technocrat with deep experience in financial markets to replace Justin Trudeau as the leader of the party and the Prime Minister of the country and to take over.
Mark Carney, 59, who led the Bank of Canada through the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Bank of England through Brexit, but who has never been elected to office, won a leadership race on Sunday against his friend and former Finance Minister Chrystia.
He won an amazing 85.9 percent of the votes voted by members of the Liberal Party. More than 150,000 people voted, according to party leaders.
“America is not Canada. And Canada will never be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Mr Carney said in a Sunday night’s acceptance speech in an electric crowd of loyal party, directly directly to Mr Trump’s threat that he wants to do it. “We didn’t ask for this race, but the Canadians are always ready when someone else falls the gloves.”
“So the Americans should not be wrong,” Mr Carney added. “In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”
He is expected to sworn quickly as prime minister, early this week, officially ending at the Trudeau era. His first and most pressing challenge will be to manage the threat by Mr Trump in Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
But because Mr Carney has no place in parliament, he is expected to call the federal elections soon after the sworn prime minister. In these elections, he will face Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party.
It is a critical time to take the wheel in Canada, a NATO member and the group of 7 industrial nations and the second largest country in the world from the mass of the Earth.
Mr Trump put his thumb in Canadian politics, through the pursuit of invoices against Canadian goods, which threatens to obstruct the economy and threatening comments about attachment.
Mr Trudeau summoned the mood to his own party and much of the Canadian society, speaking to the Liberal Party’s convention in a multitude of worship in Ottawa shortly before his successor was announced.
“This is a moment that defines the nation. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not given,” said Trudeau. “Even Canada is not given.”
Mr Carney said he supported the retaliation invoices adopted by Canada. “My government will keep our invoices until the Americans show us,” he said.
Canadian voters have suggested to researchers in the opinion that who could better resist Mr Trump was a key question that guides Mr Carney’s choice and future decisions in federal elections.
Federal elections must be held by October in accordance with Canada’s rules. The Conservative Party, led by Mr Poilievre, had long retained a 20-plus point for liberals in polls, but the gap has been closed since Mr Trudeau announced his resignation and Mr Trump began to move against Canada.
The latest polls suggest that most respondents would choose Mr Carney over Mr Poilievre if he leads the liberal party in the elections. The poll also shows that the Canadians would prefer Mr Carney to negotiate with Mr Trump for Mr Poilievre. Mr Poilievre suffered a serious failure in the polls, as some voters see him as a very close ideologically close to Mr Trump.
And on Sunday night, Mr Carney quickly revolved in the federal rhetoric of the electoral campaign to attack Mr Poilievre, throwing him as a real world experience and much admiring Mr Trump to challenge him.
“Donald Trump believes that he can weaken us with his plan to divide and conquer. Pierre Poilievre’s plan will leave us divided and ready to conquer,” he said. “Because a man who loves Donald Trump will kneel in front of him.
Mr Carney’s experience in handling great crises as a technocrat could also give him an advantage over Mr Poilievre to people’s perceptions. Mr Poilievre, 45, was a lifelong politician without much experience outside the Canadian parliamentary and rough.
The Liberal Party Foundation accumulated around Mr Carney’s campaign against Ms Freeland, a former leading lieutenant of Mr Trudeau, whose resignation in December triggered Mr Trudeau’s decision to resign.
And it was clear that the Conservative Party also sees Mr Carney as the biggest threat: he has run negative ads against him, focusing on his personal wealth and investment decisions.
One key question will be whether Mr Carney can be adequately differentiated by Mr Trudeau, whom he informed and was friendly to. The Canadians want the change after a decade of Mr Trudeau and the Conservative Party highlights the personal and ideological bonds between the two men.
In addition to Mr Trump, Canada faces a multitude of problems for which many voters accuse Mr Trudeau, mainly as a crisis of economic access, with housing and costs of living for many Canadians.
But the wider, more existential problems about how Canada is performed are also pressured. One is how to use Canada’s huge natural resources, including oil, gas and carbon, as well as the vital ingredient of potash fertilizers, rare minerals and uranium needed for nuclear energy.
Mr Carney, in the years after the career of monetary policy, appeared as a global evangelist for green investment and will have to decide how to make use of Canada’s enormous natural benefits.
Migration has been another key issue for Canadians. The country was historically open to both economic immigrants and refugees, but after the pandemic, Mr Trudeau supervised the rapid development of temporary migration to Canada to help cover lack of work.
This has begun a reaction, with immigrants accusing them of further stretching a dysfunctional housing market and healthcare system.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Carney also tried to mark his liberal credentials and convince people that, despite making a fortune in funding, he is still progressive, adapted to the party’s DNA.
“I know that markets have no values. People do,” he said. “When markets are well governed, they provide excellent jobs and strong growth better than anything else. But markets are also indifferent to human pain and are blind to our greatest needs,” he added.
