After months of speculation about his future, former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney on Thursday launched his campaign to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader with a promise to build the G7’s fastest-growing economy if elected.
Carney, 59, began his campaign to take the reins of the ruling party at the Edmonton-area hockey rink, where he learned to skate as a child growing up on the prairies.
“I’m doing this because Canada is the best country in the world, but it could still be even better,” Carney said.
The Harvard-educated Carney said he has the economic good faith to guide Canada through a period of uncertainty as the country faces President-elect Donald Trump and the threat of punishing tariffs on all our products.
Carney said conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is the “worst possible choice” to sit across the negotiating table from Trump.
“While I’m focused on building our economy, he’s seeking the endorsement of Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” he said of Poilievre.
“I am not the usual suspect when it comes to politics, but this is not the time to do politics as usual. It is not the time for lifelong politicians like Pierre Poilievre,” he said.
Mark Carney launched his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Edmonton on Thursday. Carney is the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
Carney said the economy has not reached its full potential under Trudeau. Economic growth has been lackluster and wages have not kept pace with inflation during the prime minister’s tenure, he said.
“The prime minister and his team let their attention stray from the economy too often,” Carney told the more than 125 supporters who gathered to watch his launch. “I won’t lose focus.”
“If you remember one thing I said today: I’m going to be completely focused on getting our economy back on track,” he said.
Carney has played important roles in two G7 economies.
After his time at Harvard and later Oxford University in the United Kingdom, Carney began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, based in New York, before returning to Canada to work as a senior civil servant at the Federal Department of Finance.
In what some considered a shocking appointment at the time, Carney was chosen to lead the Bank of Canada as governor in 2008.
While serving as head of the central bank, Carney helped lead the country through the 2008-09 recession, an economic calamity that was not as severe in Canada as elsewhere.
Unlike the United States, no Canadian banks collapsed during Carney’s tenure. He aggressively cut interest rates to shore up an economy on the ropes, which some analysts credit with helping save the country from ruin.
Carney was later chosen to serve as governor of the Bank of England during a tumultuous time for the United Kingdom as it navigated Brexit and the resulting economic fallout.
“I’ve helped manage multiple crises and I’ve helped save two economies. I know how business works and I know how to make it work for you,” Carney said.
During an appearance on Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s podcast last year, Carney said he was thinking about jumping into politics because the high-flying Conservatives are “leading the polls” but are a party led by someone who “doesn’t understand the economy.”
After months of speculation, former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has officially launched his campaign to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party, vowing to build the G7’s fastest-growing economy if elected.
It’s a message Carney repeated Thursday. He said Poilievre focuses on “slogans, slander and clichés” and does not have what it takes to lead a major economy.
Carney framed the choice in the next general election as one between his experience and Poilievre’s “incompetence”, a Liberal plan versus Conservative slogans and “calm versus chaos”.
In an apparent attempt to present himself as a centrist candidate for party leadership, Carney denounced what he called the “far left,” saying some leftists think more government spending is the answer to all of society’s ills.
The former central banker said he knows he faces an uphill battle in the upcoming election as the Conservatives do so well in the polls.
“I come into this game knowing we’re far behind, but we’re just warming up,” he said. “The fight begins now and we are going to win the general elections.”
Carney said he has not decided where he will run for a seat in Parliament.
While he launched his campaign in Edmonton with a nod to his northern and western roots, he admitted he hasn’t lived in Alberta full-time for about 40 years. Carney currently resides in Ottawa.
Poilievre calls Carney an ‘economic radical’
Poilievre described Carney as a Trudeau-type liberal who supports a carbon tax and, if elected, will pursue policies that kill jobs.
One of Poilievre’s social media accounts posted a series of Carney’s previous comments in which he supported a carbon tax and praised Trudeau for his leadership on carbon pricing.
Asked by reporters Thursday if he supports the Liberal government’s current carbon tax, Carney said he is open to alternative methods of reducing emissions.
“In my opinion, we need to replace it with something else,” he said in French.
Poilievre said Carney also opposed the construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline, a now-defunct project that the Conservative leader said could have helped Canada’s oil industry reduce its dependence on the U.S. market.
“The economic radicals, Trudeau, Freeland and Carney, blocked those projects because of their radical ideology,” Poilievre said. “They have made us more dependent on President Trump.”
The party launched a 30-second digital attack ad using Poilievre’s nickname for the former central banker: “Carbon Tax Carney.”
The party also attempted to portray Carney as a wealthy businessman, someone who offered economic advice to the Liberal government while also serving as chairman of the board of a major Canadian corporation, Brookfield Asset Management.
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner wrote to Brookfield’s chief executive asking him to reveal how much Carney earned in salary and stock options while working at that company.
A spokesperson for Brookfield did not respond to a CBC News request for comment on Garner’s letter or how much Carney earned while working with Brookfield.
The company’s investor relations documents from 2024 show that Carney was not paid to serve on the company’s board of directors, but was given stock in the company that he can sell at a later date.
Carney told reporters that he cut ties with Brookfield and other companies such as Bloomberg and financial services firm Stripe.
“I resigned from all my positions, period. I’m all for Canada,” he said.
