Mark Carney, the first non-Brit to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694 and the former head of Canada’s central bank, says he is entering the race to be Canada’s next prime minister following the resignation of Justin Trudeau
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney enters race to be Canada’s next prime ministerBy ROB GILLIES and JIM MORRISAssociated PressThe Associated PressVANCOUVER, British Columbia
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Mark Carney, the first non-Brit to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694 and the former head of Canada’s central bank, said Thursday he is entering the race to be Canada’s next prime minister following the resignation of Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau will remain prime minister until a new Liberal Party leader is chosen on March 9.
“The prime minister and his team let their attention on the economy wander too often,” Carney, 59, said in Edmonton, Alberta, where he made his announcement. “I won’t lose focus.”
Carney quickly launched into an attack on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who the polls show has a large lead over the Liberals.
He also highlighted the threats by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has said Canada should become the 51st state and has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods.
“This is no time for life-long politicians such as Pierre Poilievre,” he said. “Sending Pierre Poilievre to negotiate with Donald Trump is the worst possible idea.”
The front-runners for the Liberal Party leadership are Carney and ex-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, whose abrupt resignation last month forced Trudeau’s exit.
The next Liberal leader could be the shortest-tenured prime minister in the country’s history. All three opposition parties have vowed to bring down the Liberals’ minority government in a no-confidence vote after parliament resumes on March 24.
Trudeau announced his resignation Jan. 6 after facing an increasing loss of support both within his party and in the country.
Carney said Trudeau and the ruling Liberals “let their attention wander from the economy too often” and the government needs to shift back to the center.
“We can’t achieve our full potential with the ideas of the far left,” he said. “They too often see the government as the solution to every problem, with a reflex to spend and subsidize. That just treats the symptoms of the problem but doesn’t cure the disease.”
Daniel Beland, a political science professor at Montreal’s McGill University, said Carney not being part of the Liberal government has both advantages and disadvantages.
“Not being a Liberal cabinet minister or MP would make it much easier for him to separate himself from some of the most unpopular aspects of the Trudeau government’s legacies,” said Beland. “Yet, the other side of the coin is that he has never held an elected office before. Being a politician is quite different from being a policy adviser or a central banker.”
Poilievre painted Trudeau, Carney and Freeland with the same brush during a news conference in Vancouver earlier Thursday.
He blamed the Liberals for high taxes and slammed the government for suggesting it may put tariffs on energy exports to the U.S., saying it would hurt the oil-rich province of Alberta.
“Not only have the Liberals weakened our economy, now they’re resorting to dividing our people,” said Poilievre. “We don’t need to be divided; we need to be united.”
A major plank in Poilievre’s campaign has been removing the carbon tax, introduced by the Liberal government as a fee on the amount of carbon emitted by fuels like gas.
Carney said if the carbon tax is removed, it should be replaced by something that is “at least if not more effective” in having the same impact of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while making Canadian companies more competitive and creating jobs.
An official close to Freeland said she would scrap the consumer carbon tax and instead make big polluters pay.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of her announcement, said Freeland will not fight Canadians on a policy they have been clear they do not support. The official added Freeland will work with the provinces to come up with a plan.
Carney, who was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T. and grew up in Edmonton, is a highly educated economist with Wall Street experience who is widely credited with helping Canada dodge the worst of the 2008 crisis and helping the U.K. manage Brexit.
“I have helped manage multiple crises and I have helped save two economies,” Carney said. “I know how business works, and I know how to make it work for you.”
More recently he served as the U.N.’s special envoy for climate change and led an alliance of international financial institutions pushing for carbon-cutting measures. Carney has long championed the notion that making companies accountable for their impact on the planet is the first step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2012, he was named the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded. The appointment won bipartisan praise in Britain after he served as the head of Canada’s central bank and after Canada recovered faster than many other countries from the 2008 financial crisis.
Carney is credited with keeping money flowing through the Canadian economy by acting quickly in cutting interest rates to their lowest level ever of 1%, working with Canadian bankers to sustain lending through the crisis and, critically, letting the public know rates would remain low so they would keep borrowing. He was the first central banker to commit to keep them at a historic-low level for a definite time, a step the U.S. Federal Reserve would follow.
Like other central bankers, 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. He has both financial industry and government credentials.
He has long been interested in entering politics and becoming prime minister but lacks political experience. The Liberal Party has tried to recruit him for years.
Trudeau, the son of one of Canada’s most famous prime ministers, became deeply unpopular with voters over a range of issues, including the soaring cost of food and housing as well as surging immigration.
