Who is Mark Carney, the political newcomer who hopes to stay Canada's PM?
Watch: Key moments on Mark Carney’s journey from banker to Canada's PM
- Published
The former Bank of England boss, Mark Carney, became Canada's prime minister after he was sworn in this month. Now he will fight to stay in the job after calling a snap general election which will see Canadians go to the polls on 28 April.
Carney was the first non-British person to take on the top banking role in the central bank's more than 300-year history. He had previously steered his home country through the 2008 financial crash as the governor of the Bank of Canada.
Unlike most PM-hopefuls, Carney has never held political office. Still, he handily won the Liberal Party contest to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in early March.
Now he is touting his experience handling global economic crises, hoping Canadians will see him as the leader mostly likely to stand up to US President Donald Trump who has launched a trade war on his northern neighbour.
Early life and childhood
Although Carney has travelled the globe, working in places like New York, London and Tokyo, he was born in the remote northern town of Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories.
With three out of four grandparents hailing from County Mayo in Ireland, Carney holds both Irish and Canadian citizenship. He got British citizenship in 2018, but recently said he intends to relinquish his British and Irish citizenship because he thinks the prime minister should only hold Canadian citizenship.
The son of a high-school principal, he went to Harvard University on scholarship where he played the most Canadian of sports, ice hockey.
In 1995, he earned his PhD in economics from Oxford University, where he wrote his thesis on whether domestic competition can make an economy more nationally competitive - a subject that is sure to come up as Canada works to make internal trade easier in the face of American tariffs.
"Mark was an extraordinarily versatile student, rapidly mastering new approaches, perspectives and challenges," recalled his former doctoral supervisor Meg Meyer, in a press release sent by the university after Carney won the leadership race.
"These skills will undoubtedly serve him well as he leads Canada during these turbulent times."
Previous experience
In 2003, he left the private sector to join the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor, then worked for the Department of Finance as senior associate deputy minister.
In 2007, he was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada, shortly before global markets crashed, sending the country into a deep recession. His leadership at the central bank is widely praised for helping the country avoid the worst of the crisis.
Although central bankers are notoriously circumspect, he was open about his intentions to keep interest rates low for at least a year, after dramatically cutting them.
That move would be credited for helping businesses keep investing even when the markets sank. He would go on to take a similar approach when he was lured back to London - this time as the governor of the Bank of England.
He is credited with modernising the Bank, appearing much more frequently in the media than his predecessor.
In 2015, the Bank reduced the number of interest rate meetings from 12 to eight a year, and started publishing minutes alongside the announcement of interest rate decisions.
Interest rates were anchored at historic lows when he took over, but he introduced a policy of "forward guidance", where the Bank would try to further support the economy and encourage lending by pledging not to raise rates until unemployment fell below 7%.
Confusion about this policy saw an MP compare him to an "unreliable boyfriend", a moniker that stuck around long after the original controversy died down.
Unlike previous governors who generally kept a low profile, he made controversial interventions ahead of two big constitutional referendums.
In 2014 he warned that an independent Scotland might have to surrender powers to the UK if it wanted to continue using the pound.
Before the Brexit referendum, he warned that a vote to leave the EU could spark a recession.
In the wake of the leave vote, after David Cameron resigned as prime minister and the pound plunged, he addressed the nation in a bid to reassure the country that the financial system would operate as normal.
He described it as his "toughest day" on the job, but said the contingency plans the Bank put in place worked effectively.
The Bank later cut interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25% - and restarted its quantitative easing programme to support the economy.
His final week in March 2020 saw the start of the acutest phase of the Covid pandemic - the Bank cut rates by 0.5% to support the economy, and Carney told the country that the economic shock "should be temporary".
Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve (left) and Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, walk the grounds during the Jackson Hole economic symposium in 2019
Crossing paths with Trump
Carney's time at the Bank gave him plenty of experience dealing with Donald Trump - who has not only imposed steep tariffs on Canada since returning to office in January, but has also suggested that America should annex its less powerful neighbour.
From 2011-18, Carney was chair of the Financial Stability Board, which co-ordinated the work of regulatory authorities around the world, giving him a key role in the global response to the policies of the first Trump presidency.
He was a regular at the G20 meetings, with a pitch-side view of Trump on the global stage.
Although he kept his thoughts on the US president to himself at the time, he has been much more frank in recent days.
After Trump made repeated comments about making Canada the 51st state, he was less diplomatic, comparing him to the villain in the Harry Potter books.
"When you think about what's at stake in these ridiculous, insulting comments of the president, of what we could be, I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments," Carney said.
"Like I will not even repeat it, but you know what I'm talking about."
He seems prepared to dig in his heels as the trade war continues, noting he would continue to impose counter-tariffs "until the Americans show us respect … and [make] credible and reliable commitments to free and fair trade".
Political ambitions
The Liberals have reportedly courted him for a decade, but until recently the 60-year-old had brushed off the idea.
"Why don't I become a circus clown?" he told a reporter in 2012.
Things changed, however, when Trudeau stepped down in January after his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland quit his cabinet, sparking a party squabble that, coupled with Trudeau's tanking poll numbers, led the prime minister to announce his resignation.
Reports suggested Trudeau had intended to replace Freeland with Carney in the finance post.
Freeland - a personal friend - even ran against him in the race to replace Trudeau. But Carney won by a landslide, pitching himself as the best equipped to take on Trump, who has imposed steep tariffs on Canadians goods.
"I know how to manage crises," Carney said during a leadership debate late last month. "In a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, you need negotiating skills."
Still, his time in the world of finance has opened him up to criticism from political rivals in Canada.
The Conservatives have accused Carney of lying about his role in moving investment firm Brookfield Asset Management's head office from Toronto to New York, though Carney says the recent formal decision to relocate the firm was made after he quit the board.
They have also pushed him to disclose his financial assets over conflict-of-interest concerns.
Carney has placed his assets in a blind trust and has said he is in full compliance with existing conflict-of-interest rules, but has been pressed for more transparency.
Where does Carney stand on issues?
In addition to Carney's get-tough-on-Trump approach, he has proposed a number of policies to address at-home issues as well.
He is known as an advocate for environmental sustainability. In 2019 he became a UN special envoy for climate change, and in 2021 launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a grouping of banks and financial institutions working to combat climate change.
One of the most contentious parts of Trudeau's platform has been the carbon tax, which saw Canadians pay a tax on carbon emissions, and receive a rebate. Conservatives repeatedly promised to end the tax, which they say does little for the environment.
Shortly after being sworn in, Carney signed an order-in-council scrapping the tax from 1 April. "This will make a difference to hard-pressed Canadians," he said.
On immigration, Carney has advocated for a cap on current immigration targets, in order to ensure that Canada's housing and healthcare systems are not stressed. The issue had come to the fore last year, with Trudeau lowering targets amid critics saying the country's immigration system was overrun.
His biggest mission, he had said, will be to keep Canada's economy growing, despite slowed trade with the US.
There are early signs that Carney's rhetoric is being well received - a recent poll, external, conducted before Carney became PM, indicated Canadians believe Carney is better able to deal with Trump than Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.