After months of speculation about his future, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney launched his campaign to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader on Thursday with a promise to build the fastest-growing economy in the G7 if he’s elected.
Carney, 59, kicked off his campaign to take the reins of the governing party at the Edmonton-area hockey rink where he learned to skate as a boy while growing up on the Prairies.
“I’m doing this because Canada is the best country in the world, but it still could be even better,” Carney said.
The Harvard-educated Carney said he has the economic bona fides needed to steer Canada through a period of uncertainty as the country stares down president-elect Donald Trump and the threat of punishing tariffs on all our goods.
Carney said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the “worst possible” choice to put on the other side of the negotiating table with Trump.
“While I’m focused on building our economy — he’s out chasing endorsements from Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” he said of Poilievre.
“I’m not the usual suspect when it comes to politics but this is no time for politics as usual. It’s not the time for lifelong politicians such as Pierre Poilievre,” he said.
Mark Carney launched his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Edmonton on Thursday. Carney is the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor.
Carney said the economy hasn’t performed to its full potential under Trudeau. Economic growth has been lacklustre and wages haven’t kept pace with inflation on the prime minister’s watch, he said.
“The prime minister and his team let their attention wander from the economy too often,” Carney told the more than 125 supporters who gathered to see his launch. “I won’t lose focus.”
“If you remember one thing I say today — I am going to be completely focused on getting our economy back on track,” he said.
Carney has had major roles in two G7 economies.
After his time at Harvard and later Oxford University in the U.K., Carney started his career as an investment banker at New York-based Goldman Sachs before coming back to Canada to work as a senior public servant in the federal Finance Department.
In what was considered by some to be a shock appointment at the time, Carney was then tapped to lead the Bank of Canada as governor in 2008.
While serving as the head of the central bank, Carney helped lead the country through the 2008-09 recession — an economic calamity that wasn’t as bad in Canada as it was elsewhere.
Unlike in the U.S., no Canadian banks collapsed during Carney’s tenure. He aggressively cut interest rates to prop up an economy on the ropes, which some analysts credit with helping to save the country from ruin.
Carney was later picked to serve as the Bank of England governor during a tumultuous time for the U.K. 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 in the polls” but they’re a party led by someone who “doesn’t understand the economy.”
Following the launch of his candidacy for the Liberal Party leadership, Mark Carney took aim at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s political slogans and sound bites. Carney said being an outsider, his experience and not being a lifelong politician will help him in the campaign.
It’s a message Carney repeated Thursday. He said Poilievre is focused on “slogans and slander and sound bites” and doesn’t 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 frame himself as a centrist candidate for the party’s leadership, Carney denounced what he called the “far left,” saying some leftists think more government spending is the answer to all societal ills.
The former central banker said he knows he faces an uphill battle in the upcoming election with the Conservatives doing so well in the polls.
“I’m coming into this match, coming into this game, knowing we are well behind but we’re just getting warmed up,” he said. “The fight back starts now and we’re going to win the general election.”
Carney said he hasn’t 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 conceded he hasn’t lived in Alberta full-time for some 40 years. Carney currently resides in Ottawa.
Poilievre calls Carney an ‘economic radical’
Poilievre described Carney as a Trudeau-like Liberal who supports a carbon tax and will pursue job-killing policies, if elected.
One of Poilievre’s social media accounts posted a series of past Carney comments where he endorsed a carbon levy 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’s open to alternative methods to drive down emissions.
“We need to replace it with something else, in my opinion,” he said in French.
Poilievre said Carney also opposed building 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 released a 30-second digital attack ad that uses Poilievre’s pet name for the former central banker: “Carbon Tax Carney.”
The party also tried to paint Carney as a rich 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 the CEO of Brookfield asking him to disclose how much Carney made in wages and stock options while serving 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 made while working with Brookfield.
The company’s 2024 investor relations documents show Carney was not paid to serve on the company’s board but he was given stock in the company that he can sell at a later date.
Carney told reporters he has cut ties with Brookfield and other companies like Bloomberg and financial services firm Stripe.
“I resigned all my positions — full stop. I’m all in for Canada,” he said.
