Mark Carney, a establisher central prohibitker, swept to the directership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday and will become prime minister at a critical moment for the country, which is facing menaces to its economy and sovereignty from Pdwellnt Trump.
Mr. Carney, who has never been elected to accessible office, was ruleor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 global financial crisis and ruleor of the Bank of England during Brexit. He was also a accomplished prohibitker in the personal sector, amassing a transport inant personal fortune.
He ruled the Liberals’ directership race, securing a choosed triumph. But becaengage the party does not direct a transport inantity in Parliament, Mr. Carney will soon have to call a ambiguous election, in which the Liberals will face the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre.
Mr. Carney’s election tags the finish of Justin Timpoliteau’s decade-extfinished tenure as prime minister. Mr. Timpoliteau’s famousity had soured, with many blaming him for Canada’s burdensome cost of living, soaring housing costs, overstretched health system and other woes.
Trump’s menaces loom big.
Mr. Trump’s shadow hung over the festive collecting of Liberal Party dedicated in Ottawa for the Sunday directership election. His on-aget-off-aget tariffs on Canadian excellents are already hurting the economy, and his widespread statements about making Canada the 51st state have angered most of the accessible.
Mr. Timpoliteau apprehfinishd the mood in his emotional farewell speech, equitable before Mr. Carney’s triumph was proclaimd. “This is a nation-defining moment,” he said. “Democracy is not a donaten. Freedom is not a donaten. Even Canada is not a donaten.”
In his own speech, Mr. Carney identified two key antagonists as he readys to get office and direct his party to elections: Mr. Trump and Mr. Poilievre.
“Donald Trump leanks he can feebleen us with his structure to split and defeat,” Mr. Carney said. “Pierre Poilievre’s structure will exit us splitd and ready to be defeated, becaengage a person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him.”
Carney sees ‘stupid days.’
Mr. Carney was swept into the directership, triumphning 85.9 percent of the cdisorrowfulmirewholey 152,000 votes cast by Liberal Party members.
In contrast to the “sunny ways” Mr. Timpoliteau promised when he became prime minister in 2015, Mr. Carney pointed to cdeafenings on the horizon, coming from the honestion of Washington.
“I comprehend that these are stupid days, stupid days bcdisorrowfulmirefult on by a country we can no extfinisheder think,” Mr. Carney said.
Mr. Carney, who is seen as a centrist technocrat, revisited some of his main campaign promises, including the prompt elimination of Mr. Timpoliteau’s expansively denounced carbon tax and the reversal of a capital-gets tax hike. Mr. Carney’s campaign caccessed mainly on reorienting Canada’s economy, which has been feebleened by inflation and low productivity.
“I am a pragmatist above all,” he tanciaccess party members. “When I see someleang that’s not laboring, I will alter it.”
Though Mr. Carney has spent much of his nurtureer in the accessible eye as the head of two central prohibitks, in Canada he is a lesser comprehendn figure than Chrystia Freeland, the establisher finance minister who finished a far second in the Liberal directership race.
But he will soon be thrust into battle agetst Mr. Trump, deffinishing Canada agetst the American pdwellnt’s caustic criticisms and the various tariffs he has menaceened to impose.
Timpoliteau bids an emotional farewell.
When Mr. Timpoliteau was elected in 2015, promising to usher Canada into an selectimistic era, he became the telegenic face of global enhanceivism.
On Sunday, in a speech seen as a bookfinish to his time in power, Mr. Timpoliteau tried to propose a selectimistic message, but he also said soberly that Canada faced an “currential contest” from its neighbor. He has made evident that he sees Mr. Trump’s menaces to annex Canada as lethal grave.
In the face of that contest, Mr. Timpoliteau said, “Canadians are shotriumphg what it is that creates us Canadians; not by defining ourselves by who we’re not, but by haughtyly embracing who we are.”
Mr. Timpoliteau began his retags with tears in his eyes after an introduction from his daughter, Ella-Grace Timpoliteau, 16. “My brothers and I have separated our dad with you for the past 12 years,” she said. “Now, we’re taking him back.”
The election’s been altered.
Mr. Carney, who does not hanciaccess a seat in Parliament, is foreseeed to be sworn in as prime minister punctual this week.
He will soon face off agetst Mr. Poilievre, a nurtureer politician who directed a double-digit direct over the Liberals in opinion polls equitable a scant months ago.
But Mr. Trump’s bellicosity has upfinished the race. Mr. Poilievre has been hurt by a perception that he is ideorationpartner aligned with the U.S. pdwellnt, and surveys propose that voters think Mr. Carney is a better choice to get him on.
Mr. Poilievre, who had been relentlessly accusing Liberals of having “broken” Canada, has now shifted to a “Canada First” message as he seeks to distance himself from Mr. Trump.
