Mark Carney has been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Carney clinched victory decisively, winning on the first ballot with 85.9 per cent of the vote, in a race that was set in motion earlier this year by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
After maintaining frontrunner status throughout the two-month race, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor will become this country’s next prime minister within days.
As Party President Sachit Mehra revealed, Carney beat out former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who came a distant second with eight per cent support, former cabinet minister Karina Gould who placed third with three per cent of the votes, and businessman and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis, who came fourth with three per cent.
When each candidate entered the convention they were all met with much fanfare and delivered opening remarks thanking supporters for injecting new energy into the party, which Carney will now be looking to capitalize on.
Ultimately 151,899 party loyalists cast a ballot in this race, seeing the vast majority decide – based on a ranked-ballot system that saw each riding receive equal weighting – Carney was who they wanted to steer them and the rest of the country through the unpredictable waters of an on-again, off-again trade war with Canada’s closest ally.
He will also be the one carrying the party’s banner in the likely imminent federal election, which polls show to be an increasingly narrowing race with the Conservatives.
Carney has never held elected office and currently is not a member of Parliament.
It is not yet known in which riding he will run in, but he has confirmed he will campaign for a seat in House of Commons in the next election.“Together, we are ready for the year ahead,” Mehra said, noting the looming 2025 election. “We need to knock on doors, make those calls, and chip in where we can, because only together will we win the fight for a strong Canada.”
Trudeau ‘damn proud of what we’ve done’
With the four candidates sitting in front of him, Trudeau addressed the crowd of loyal Liberals for his last time, just minutes before the results were declared.
“I am damn proud of what we’ve done,” Trudeau said, marking the end of his nearly 12-year run as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, after once quipping that he would “never” be a politician.
His tenure, now coming to a close, saw him rebuild the political organization, refresh its brand and catapult the party back into power.
“Through every crisis, Canadians have shown me who they are. We’ve pulled together. We’ve stood up for each other. And every single time, we’ve emerged even stronger,” Trudeau said.
Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien also regaled the crowd awaiting the results, and thanked Trudeau for his leadership, noting despite attacks by critics, Canada is “the best country in the world,” citing its status as having the lowest debt per capita in the G7.
A condensed race concludes
As the campaign played out, the candidates did what they could to differentiate themselves, including vowing to move away from some core Trudeau policies such as the carbon tax, if elected.
Carney headed into Sunday widely seen as heir-apparent, outpacing his competition in both caucus and cabinet endorsements, as well as in fundraising. According to the latest Elections Canada financial data, the former central banker raised nearly $3 million more than the others, gathered from close to 10 times as many donors.
He’s also become the central focus of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s attacks, as the official opposition party has made quick work of trying to define their anticipated new rival.
Freeland, whose shocking late-2024 resignation set into motion the events that played out on Sunday, ran a race focused on her bona fides in being the best person to take on U.S. President Donald Trump, but struggled to gain traction during the campaign.
Gould’s somewhat underdog campaign, and particularly her debate performances, were lauded by many Liberals, particularly younger voters, for demonstrating what her pitch of a new generation of leadership could look like.
And Baylis, who over the last 60 days leaned into his business and health-sector acumen, pitched himself as the least tied to Trudeau’s legacy and therefore best placed to take the party in a new direction.
Registered Liberals began voting on Feb. 25, virtually, and over the course of the last two weeks, many expressed frustration with the party electronic voter ID verification processes. Though, party spokesperson Parker Lund repeatedly said the system worked as it should to ensure a secure vote.
Who is Mark Carney?
Carney was born in the Northwest Territories, and when he was six his family moved to Edmonton. Carney earned his bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University, before pursuing his master’s and doctorate from Oxford University, also in economics.
He and his wife, Diana, who is also an economist, have four daughters.Over his pre-politics career, Carney worked in a series of financial positions, from a Goldman Sachs executive, to the second-youngest Bank of Canada governor in history, tapped to stickhandle the global financial crisis.
After his term at Canada’s central bank ended in 2013, he took on the same role at the Bank of England, becoming the first foreigner to be named governor of that institution in its more than three-century-long history. Carney — an officer of the Order of Canada since 2014 — later agreed to stay on at the helm of the Bank of England for two extra years, to help ease the Brexit transition.
Then, in August 2020, Trudeau tapped Carney to serve as an “informal adviser” on the government’s pandemic recovery plan.
April 2021 marked Carney’s official coming out as a card-carrying Liberal, delivering a keynote speech praising many of the party’s policies, and ratcheting up the speculation he was considering getting his name on a ballot. That same year Carney published his book, “Value(s): Building a Better World for All,” which is focused on how to “build an economy and society based not on market values but on human values.”
After throwing cold water several times on rumours he was looking to jump into the political arena – including heavy speculation over last summer and this past fall around him replacing Freeland as finance minister, Carney made his intent clear just 10 days after Trudeau resigned.
Transition date to PM yet to be set
While Carney is now officially the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he has yet to officially become the prime minister.
Trudeau has said he has no intentions of trying to stay on in a caretaker capacity and is looking forward to handing over the reins to his “duly elected successor in the coming days or week,” but, a date for that transition has yet to be declared.
As Trudeau alluded to earlier this week, he wanted to have a conversation with his successor before deciding on his official resignation date and how long of a transition would be needed.
“It should happen reasonably quickly. But there’s a lot of things to do in a transition like this, particularly at this complicated time,” Trudeau said Tuesday.
Procedurally speaking, Trudeau will have to visit the governor general and officially tender his resignation. At that point, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon would accept, and likely ask his advice on a successor.
She would then invite Carney to Rideau Hall, to swear in the requisite oaths of office and allegiance. And, a date would be selected for his official forming of a new government and the swearing in of his ministry, which would include the unveiling of his refreshed front bench of ministers.
Early election call?
Then, it’s get-down-to-work time. With a host of government and leadership transition files that will be coming across Carney’s desk, plus the spectre of an early election call, Carney’s first few days will be jam-packed. He’ll also be fielding calls from world leaders, and likely would look to quickly convene Canada’s premiers as he also takes his place in the hot seat as Canada’s manager of the chaos that is the current trade war.
While the next fixed election date isn’t until Oct. 20, the Canada-wide campaign is expected to be called much sooner. As soon Carney is sworn in, he’ll have the power to call an election.
It’s a move many expect him to make, as polling shows he’d be best placed to ride the party’s current momentum into a national campaign at a time where a sense of Canadian nationalism is swirling.
The other possibility is Carney would look to recall Parliament as scheduled on March 24 and try to push ahead with governing. Though, without a seat in the House of Commons and facing the prospect of the other parties ready to vote non-confidence at their earliest opportunity, that path would likely also result in Canadians being sent to the polls this spring.
With files from CTV News' Spencer Van Dyk and Stephanie Ha