Mark Carney, a former investment banker turned central bank governor, has become Canada’s new prime minister, succeeding outgoing leader Justin Trudeau.
Carney, age 59, won a leadership vote within Canada’s governing Liberal Party, receiving 86% of the 152,000 votes that were cast.
He now takes over as Liberal Party leader and prime minister after Justin Trudeau resigned from the post.
Carney will lead the Liberals into Canada’s next federal election, which must take place by Oct. 20 of this year.
Born in Canada’s Northwest Territories Arctic region, Carney was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities.
He spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs (GS), where he rose through the ranks in their London and New York offices to become managing director for investment banking.
Returning to Canada, Carney was appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2008, a position he held until 2013, helping to steer the country through the global financial crisis.
From 2013 until 2020, Carney served as Governor of the Bank of England, becoming the first non-Briton to be appointed to the role since the Bank of England was established in 1694.
Since 2020, Carney has served as vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management (BN), where he led the firm's environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment strategy.
He now becomes Canada’s prime minister at a tumultuous time, with the country in the midst of a trade war with the U.S. under President Donald Trump and tensions running high.
Justin Trudeau announced in January that he would step down after more than nine years as Canada’s prime minister as his approval rating sank.
Carney, a political novice, argued that he is best to oversee trade negotiations with Trump, who is threatening additional tariffs that could cripple Canada’s export-dependent economy.
So far, Canada has imposed $30 billion of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods and threatened other measures such as a surcharge on energy exports to America.
Carney’s win marks the first time an outsider with no real political background has become Canada’s prime minister.
Heading into the upcoming election, Canada’s Liberals are statistically tied with the official opposition Conservative Party led by career politician Pierre Poilievre.
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