1 week Ago By The Telegraph
According to Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney was always reluctant to enter the world of politics. The former premier, who was forced to resign earlier this year as his approval ratings nosedived, approached him last year and asked him to join his cabinet. Mr Carney, 60, declined to do so.
“He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics,” Mr Trudeau said last summer. Less than a year later, after Mr Trudeau quit under pressure from colleagues who feared Canada’s Liberal Party would be defeated with him as its leader, Mr Carney joined the contest to replace him. He overcame several challengers, the most significant of them being Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister, to win in a landslide and become leader, and therefore prime minister.
Mr Carney also promptly called a general election, campaigning for which is entering its final stages . Polls show Mr Carney has a decent chance of returning to the job of prime minister, this time having been elected. He will personally be fighting to win the parliamentary district, or “riding”, of Nepean, which is part of Ottawa.
“America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Carney said in his a speech, when he took over from his predecessor. “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.
” He added: “Americans should make no mistake. In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.” Pulling no punches with Donald Trump His comments made reference to the trade war the country had become embroiled in after Donald Trump vowed to put tariffs of 25 per cent on Canada and Mexico.
He had also made now infamous remarks suggesting Canada should join the US and Mr Trudeau could be governor of a new “51st state”. If Mr Carney does become prime minster again, it will likely be in no small part as a result of Trump’s attacks on Canada, and the way the Liberal Party, and Mr Carney responded. Standing up to Mr Trump cast him in a good light with would-be voters.
In January, a poll showed Pierre Poilievre, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, ahead of the Liberals by 47 per cent to 20 per cent. Yet in the latest Nanos poll that ended on April 23, the Liberals led by four points. The January poll had a margin of error of 3.
1 points while the latest poll had a 2.7-point margin. The Harvard and Oxford graduate has served as head of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and presented himself as someone who can lead his country in a global order, jolted by Mr Trump’s actions.
This is in regard to its relationships with traditional allies, and with international trade. Last month, Mr Carney, whose French has been criticised for not being as fluent as his English, told reporters Canada’s old relationship with the US, “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”. He said it was essential Canadians “fundamentally reimagine our economy”.
Bank of England governor and ‘architect of Project Fear’ Mr Carney, who is married and has four children, was chairman of the board of Bloomberg and UN special envoy for climate action and finance. He served as governor of the Canadian central bank from 2008 to 2013 and spent seven years as governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. Once coined the rockstar central banker, Mr Carney has advocated for “mission oriented capitalism”, calling on the financial system to head off challenges such as climate change.
He was branded the “architect of Project Fear” by Brexit supporters after warning that leaving the EU would stoke inflation, stem growth and weaken the pound. “There’s no joy in saying: well, ‘we told you so’ because people are having to live with that reality,” he told The Telegraph in 2023. Mr Carney had championed some controversial policies such as the consumer carbon tax policy, which critics argue is a financial burden on the public.
One of his first acts as prime minster was to cancel the tax. Mr Carney’s first overseas visits as prime minster were to France and the UK. In Canada, he has continued to place fighting tariffs at the centre of his campaign for the premiership.
“We must respond with both purpose and force,” he said recently “We are a free, sovereign and ambitious country. We are masters in our own home. We will fight to bring these tariffs to an end.
”.
