Former Central Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney launched his bid to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader and prime minister on Thursday, and immediately became the frontrunner.
The 59-year-old Harvard and Oxford-educated economist began his campaign at a hockey rink in Edmonton, Alberta, where he grew up.
“I’m doing this because Canada is the best country in the world, but it can still be even better,” Carney told the crowd of supporters.
Presenting himself as an outsider and an unconventional politician with strong economic clout, he vowed to get the Canadian economy “back on track” and beat back the threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Carney is expected to go head-to-head with his friend, former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is due to announce her leadership bid on Sunday.
Freeland’s surprise resignation in December after clashing with her boss over how to respond to Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports created a political crisis, leading Trudeau to announce last week that he too would step down. are leaving.
Whoever wins the leadership will automatically become prime minister and inherit a party that trails the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservative Party by 20 points in the polls. He may also face snap elections in early March.
Carney, a relative unknown to most Canadians, on Thursday immediately went on the offensive against Poilievre, accusing him of pushing “bad ideas, naive and dangerous ideas.”
As well, the former UN special envoy on climate action acknowledged that Canada’s climate measures like the carbon levy – which Poilievre wants to eliminate – have not worked for all Canadians.
Meanwhile, in a recent appearance on “The Daily Show,” Carney took a dig at Trump’s unlikely plan to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, telling host Jon Stewart: “We’re not going with you.”
He said, “We can be friends.” “friends with benefits.”
Stewart responded that during the interview he felt as if Carney was breaking up with him.
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