Who is Mark Carney, banker-turned-PM, who is poised to win Canada's elections?
Canada election: Mark Carney replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this year, who had resigned after his popularity declined amid rise in food and housing prices.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney-led Liberal Party is projected to win the national election, marking a turnaround in its electoral fortunes after US President Donald Trump's annexation threats and tariff war.
Carney replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this year, who had resigned after his popularity declined amid rise in food and housing prices.
In March, the incumbent prime minister called for Parliament to be dissolved to prepare for the election. At the time, the Liberals held 152 seats, and the Conservatives had 120. Bloc Québécois held 33 seats, and the NDP held 24. Others were held by unrecognized parties, independents, or were vacant.
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Even with no government experience, Carney convinced voters that his background dealing with financial turmoil equipped him to lead Canada through Trump's trade war.
Who is Mark Carney?
1. Mark Carney was born on March 16, 1965 near the Arctic in Fort Smith, in Canada's Northwest Territories. He was raised in the western city of Edmonton.
2. The Canadian prime minister is an alumnus of Harvard in the United States and Oxford in England. Having played hockey in his youth, Carney, made a fortune as an investment banker early in his career at Goldman Sachs, working in New York, London, Tokyo and Toronto, an AFP report said.
3. After joining the civil service, he was appointed as the governor of the Bank of Canada in 2008 by former prime minister Stephen Harper, a conservative.
4. After the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, Carney was among a group of leaders credited with steering Canada through an international meltdown relatively unscathed.
5. In 2013, the United Kingdom's prime minister, David Cameron, tapped Carney to head the Bank of England, making him the first non-Briton to lead the institution since its founding in 1694.
6. The UK then voted to leave the European Union, and Carney played a key role in reassuring markets following the 2016 Brexit vote.
7. When Carney announced he was leaving the bank in late 2019, Britain's then-finance minister Sajid Javid said the Canadian had led "with conviction, rigor and intelligence."
8. According to AFP, in a recent appearance on a Canadian comedy show, the host, listing the financial crisis, Brexit and Trump's trade war, joked Carney might be to blame for the economic upheaval that trails him. Laughing, Carney said, "It's the other way around. I come in to fix these things."
(With AFP inputs)
