Mark Carny, new Prime Minister of Canada, is a former central manufacturer with a crisis experience that is about to face his greatest challenge: managing Donald Trump’s tariffs.
At 59, he will be the first person to assume the position without having been parliamentary or having held a position in the cabinet.
In normal times, their credentials as oblivious to politics would have ended their candidacy. However, his distance with the outgoing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and his successful career in the banking sector played in his favor. Carney argues that she is the only person prepared to deal with Trump.
“I know how to manage crisis … in a situation like this, you need experience in crisis management and negotiation skills,” said Carney during a debate at the end of last month.
Carney argues that Canada must respond to Trump tariffs with equivalent reprisals, dollar per dollar, and diversify their medium -term commercial relations.
“President Trump probably believes that Canada will yield. But we are going to stand up to the thug, we are not going to back. We are united and we will answer, ”he said in February.
Carney has described Trump’s threats as “the most serious crisis of our life” and said Sunday: “The United States wants our resources, our water, our land, our country.”
Daniel Béland, director of the Institute of Canadian Studies of the McGill University, describes Carney as a “technocrat.” “It is a boring guy who, in general, does not have much charisma,” he said. However, he added that his rigorous and without stridency could be attractive at a time when Canada is shaken by Trump’s commercial chaos and his attacks on the sovereignty of the country.
“Carney projects the image of someone reassuring, who knows what he’s talking about,” said Béland.
From banker to political leader
Born in Fort Smith, a small town in the remote territories of the Northwest, where his parents were teachers, Carney grew up in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta. He studied in Harvard, where he played as an ice hockey goalkeeper, and later in Oxford.
He became a millionaire as an investment banker after 13 years in Goldman Sachs, working in New York, London, Tokyo and Toronto, before being appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. In 2008, with just 42 years, he assumed the position of governor of the Central Bank.
Carney was praised for his management of the financial crisis of 2008, when he created new emergency loan mechanisms and gave clear guidance on maintaining interest rates at historically low levels for a certain period.
Since then, rumors about their possible entry into politics with the liberals have been constant, although he has often responded with negatives to that possibility.
The Bank of England signed it in 2013, making it the first foreign governor in the more than 300 years of history of the institution and in the first person to direct two central banks of the G7. In his appointment, the then British finance minister, George Osborne, described him as “the best central banker of his generation.”
However, his stage in London was not exempt from difficulties. He faced inflation close to zero and the political chaos of Brexit.
Carney had trouble applying her strategy to anticipate the evolution of interest rates. This led the Labor Deputy Pat McFadden to qualify the Bank of England under his term as an “unreliable boyfriend.”
In addition, he enraged the Brexit supporters by warning about the possible economic damage of the EU exit. The conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg called him the “high priest of the project of fear”, but Carney insisted that his duty was to alert about those risks.
When the sterling pound collapsed after the 2016 referendum, Carney appeared on television to reassure the markets and ensure that the bank was prepared to inject liquidity if necessary.
“Mark has an unusual capacity to combine the firm hand of a central banker with the vision of the future of a political reformist,” said Ana Botín, executive president of Banco Santander, in a comment sent to Reuters. He added that Carney “kept the ship afloat” in the United Kingdom after Brexit.
A politician with communication challenges
After leaving the England Bank in 2020, Carney worked as a special envoy of the UN for finance and climate change. In 2021 he launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Zero Neto, a group destined to coordinate the efforts of the financial sector in the fight against the climate crisis.
Carney announced his candidacy for political leadership of Canadian liberals on January 16. Although his way to the Prime Minister has been unusual, he said at a rally in Edmonton: “We live times that have nothing ordinary.”
However, his mandate could be brief. The general elections are expected to be held before October 20, and the surveys give a slight advantage to the conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, a career politician with little international experience.
Lori Turnbull, a professor at the University of Dalhousie, warned that Carney could have difficulty connecting with the electorate. “He is not a great communicator with the public,” he said. “It is exceptionally prepared to manage economic crises, but it is difficult to succeed in politics if you are not able to convince people.”
“The conservative party is trying to portray it as an elitist who does not understand the problems of common people. If you fail to communicate well, you run the risk of being pigeonholed in that role, ”said Turnbull.
#Mark #Carny #boring #guy #replaces #Justin #Trudeau #Canada #challenge #Face #Trumps #bully
