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Canada: Former central banker Mark Carney expected to win Liberal Party’s leadership race
The agency Mainstreet Research’s survey of Liberal Party voters indicated that Carney will defeat former Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland. As per that poll, he had 43% support as against 31% for Freeland
Toronto: Former central banker Mark Carney is expected to win the Liberal Party’s leadership race next Sunday and become Canada’s next Prime Minister, even as he positions himself as a centrist differentiating himself from Justin Trudeau.
Polling recently showed that Carney is leading the race to succeed Trudeau as Prime Minister. That process is scheduled to be completed on March 9.
The agency Mainstreet Research’s survey of Liberal Party voters indicated that Carney will defeat former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. As per that poll, he had 43% support as against 31% for Freeland.
Carney’s focus has recently been in damage control as he has been attacked by the opposition over misstatements. Under his chairmanship Brookfield Asset Management moved its headquarters from Toronto to New York last year though he had stated it had done so after he resigned the position in mid-January as he entered the Liberal leadership race. That matter is particularly fraught with relations between the United States and Canada cratering over President Donald Trump’s threats, including those of tariffs.
Carney has attempted to distance himself from the unpopular incumbent. During the leadership race English language debate in Montreal on Tuesday, he said, “Our economy was weak before we go to these threats from President Trump.”
In fact, his campaign platform attacks the Trudeau policies, as it says, “Too many Canadians, particularly younger Canadians, have been knocked back by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis — setbacks made worse by the surge in immigration and the shortfall in affordable housing.”
He has described himself repeatedly as an “outsider” even though he brought in as an economic adviser by Trudeau last year. He maintained that stand in a post on X on Friday, as he said, “I’m not a career politician. I’m a pragmatist who gets things done.”
His stances, including those of balancing the budget, capping immigration, reducing government spending and reforming the tax system have earned him criticism from other Liberal contenders who have called him “Conservative-lite”.
Carney has touted his experience of working as Governor of the Bank of Canada (BoC) under the Conservative government of then Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He has also talked up his tenure as a bureaucrat under the centrist, fiscally-conservative Government of then Liberal PM Paul Martin. Carney was BoC governor from 2008 to 2013, and then became Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, also under a Conservative government, though in the United Kingdom.
On Friday, while appearing at an event in the town of Oakville in Ontario with Indo-Canadian Cabinet Minister Anita Anand, Carney said he was in the process of relinquishing his British and Irish citizenships.
The Liberal Party has reported that over 65,000 members have cast their ballots already.
