[ad_1]
Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar
As U.S. President Donald Trump piled on tariffs after tariffs against Canada, one person managed to come out politically unscathed. Mark Carney, who assumed the Prime Minister’s role earlier this month, saw his cause being inadvertently helped by the U.S. Republican leader’s trade wars.
The 59-year-old inherited the reins when discontentment was running high among Canadians following a nine-year rule by the Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau. Raging inflation, a housing crisis and a generous immigration policy all led to the Liberals’ popularity dip to 15% and eventually, Mr. Trudeau’s exit in January.
Concurrently, across the southern border, Mr. Trump staged a comeback, accompanied by threats of annexing Canada to make it the ‘51st State’ of the U.S. and an array of tariffs on steel, aluminium and car imports. The Conservatives, who had shored up support until then, were robbed of the wind in their sails when the public, with a newfound nationalistic fervour, rallied behind the Liberal Party leader. Sensing an opportunity, Mr. Carney, who originally had time till October to govern with a minority, has called snap elections for April 28.
Despite the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives’ best efforts to remind voters about the failures of the Liberal Party, the race for the Prime Minister’s post has essentially whittled down to the candidate best poised to steer Canada away from the ‘Trump storm’. Canada’s old relationship with the U.S., “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”, he said last week. Opinion polls suggest Mr. Carney, notwithstanding his political inexperience and the ‘Just like Justin’ tag, is making a strong case.
Crisis manager
As the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mr. Carney was credited with helping the country tide over the 2008 financial crisis. In 2013, he became the first non-citizen of the U.K. to head the Bank of England, and later oversaw the institution at the time of the Brexit in 2020. Perhaps these are the credentials alluded to at a leadership debate last month where he said he could manage crises.
However, the Conservatives would like to quote his tenure in the private sector and flag a ‘conflict of interest’. Prior to his central bank stints, which began in 2003, Mr. Carney studied at Oxford and Harvard and worked at Goldman Sachs for 13 years, living in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto. Recently, he became part of Brookfield Asset Management — a role that came under the Opposition’s scrutiny after the firm shifted base from Toronto to New York. Also cited by critics as a lack of transparency is his refusal to disclose details about his financial assets. Mr. Carney says his assets are now managed by a blind trust.
#
Other roles include his stint as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance beginning in 2019. He launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero in 2021 and has called for the private sector to invest more in climate-friendly technology.
The Liberal Party leader’s vision for Canada includes limiting government spending, capping immigration figures temporarily and investing in housing. On the overseas front, apart from managing ties with the U.S., Mr. Carney will have to mend relations with India that came under strain after Mr. Trudeau accused New Delhi of involvement in the killing of a Khalistani activist in Canada. Relations with China also soured in 2022 after Xi Jinping accused Mr. Trudeau of leaking details of their discussions to the press.
Unlike his predecessor, whose father, Pierre Trudeau, was Prime Minister too, Mr. Carney hails from a regular family. Born to a high-school principal, the economist has tried to paint himself as an outsider, trying to distance his government from that of the previous one. He did so by scrapping the carbon tax, one of the main policies of the Trudeau scion, which was decried by the Opposition. However, his role as an adviser to Mr. Trudeau belies the outsider status.
Not having held public office so far, his political acumen has not been put to test and observers say he fits the mold of a technocrat, economic thinker or policy expert at best. A political novice who will be contesting from the Nepean seat in Ottawa, it remains to be seen if he can strike a chord with the voters or remain a liberal elite.
Published – March 30, 2025 01:28 am IST
[ad_2]
Mark Carney: An unenviable job
