Canada has a new Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau, who announced his decision to step aside on Jan. 6, 2025, lost his job as Leader of the Liberal Party on March 9, 2025 to Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, and U.N. Envoy for Climate Change. Carney easily won the party leadership, taking nearly 87 percent of the party vote. Less than a week later, on March 14, 2025, Carney took office as Canada’s 24th Prime Minister.
Carney is the first Canadian Prime Minister to have no previous political experience, and the first in over 40 years to not hold a seat in the House of Commons. But, for someone who now occupies such an important position, the question remains, who exactly is Mark Carney, and what does his victory mean for Calgarians?
About Mark Carney
Carney was born on March 16, 1965, in the town of Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories along the Albertan border. Carney lived most of his early life in Edmonton, before being admitted to Harvard University in 1984 to study Economics. He then landed himself a cushy job back at Goldman-Sachs advising developing nations on entering into international markets. Carney helped to advise a post-apartheid South Africa on entering into global bond (debt) markets, and assisted Russia with dealing with a recession in 1998.
Carney moved back to Canada to accept a position as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. The Bank of Canada is responsible for managing the nation’s monetary policies, such as printing bank notes, handing out loans to other financial institutions like banks, and setting interest rates on debt. In 2007, Carney was appointed to head the Bank of Canada as Governor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, taking office on Feb. 1, 2008.
His tenure as Governor largely coincided with the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. In order to combat the crisis, Carney cut interest rates quickly while the rest of the world cut rates slowly or, in the case of Europe, raised rates. His approach helped to encourage more spending in the Canadian economy. He also committed to keeping these low rates for an extended period of time, which boosted confidence in the market. Carney’s actions played a large role in allowing Canada to avoid the worst effects of the recession and recover quickly. Canada was the first nation in the G7 to recover its economy to pre-recession levels, with Carney being named “Most Trusted Canadian” in 2011 by Reader’s Digest Magazine for his contributions.
Carney’s career in Canada caught the attention of George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer (a cabinet position equivalent to Minister of Finance). Osborne approached Carney about returning to Britain to head the Bank of England. After offering him several concessions, such as a shortened term and more power over the economy, Carney accepted the offer, and on July 1, 2013, formally took office as Governor of the Bank of England. He served in this position for seven years, until March 15, 2020.
After leaving the Bank of England, Carney accepted a position at the United Nations as Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, playing a key role in developing international responses to climate change. Additionally, he served as an advisor to several world leaders, including Trudeau. During this time, Carney increasingly involved himself in politics, aligning himself with the Liberal Party and vehemently opposing the policies of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Carney had been mentioned as a possible replacement for Trudeau since early 2024, long expected to make a bid for the premiership once Trudeau had stepped down. On Jan. 16, 2025, these assumptions were validated, with Carney announcing his bid for Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister. As mentioned, he easily won the leadership, officially assuming office as leader on March 9, 2025 and taking office as P.M. on March 14, 2025.
What this means for Canada
With a two-decade long background in economics and climate science, Carney is expected to spend his tenure focusing on the economy and environment. His campaign for the leadership promised to replace the carbon tax with incentives for green energy, cut red tape on interprovincial trade, spend more on national defense and strengthen Canada’s presence in the Arctic to combat Russian influence, impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S, and introduce caps on immigration until it returns to pre-pandemic levels. Calgarians in greener industries are expected to benefit from this switch to incentives for green energy. However, Carney’s focus on climate change, and his personal opposition to fossil fuels, is expected to influence his energy policy which may prove disadvantageous to Calgary’s largely oil-based economy.
Unique among Canadian Prime Ministers is the fact that Carney has never before sought elected office, and does not have a seat in parliament. Although nothing in the Canadian Constitution indicates the Prime Minister has to be a Member of Parliament (MP), they do have to be an MP in order to introduce legislation, vote on bills, and participate in parliamentary debates. Until Carney somehow acquires a seat, whether via by-election before the federal election or in a future federal election itself, he will have to rely on a deputy Prime Minister in the House of Commons to act on his behalf in parliament.
Carney’s complicated status with parliament may, however, not matter all that much in the long run. In order to hold onto his new job for long, he will have to fight for it. Canada is destined for an election this year. The latest possible date this could happen is Oct. 20, 2025. Carney himself, however, has already indicated he would be willing to call an early election within his first few days or weeks in power. Despite the Liberal change in leadership, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives still lead in opinion polls by around three percent, according to the most recent figures from polling aggregate site 338 Canada. Assuming Carney does call an election, or that the Conservatives successfully pass a vote of no-confidence and force an election, he would have less than two months to prove his case to the Canadian public and retain his job. If he is incapable of doing so, he would be among the shortest-ever serving Prime Ministers in Canadian history.
Carney faces his biggest challenge yet: guiding a nation, and his party, through turbulous and unsteady times. But however well the banker-turned-Prime Minister performs, one thing is certain: Canada is in for a few interesting months.