OTTAWA, Ontario — Former Central Bank Governor of Canada Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after winning the Liberal leadership race on Sunday night. Carney told cheering supporters that “Canada will never become part of America in any way, shape or form.”
Carney received 86% of the vote, or 131,764 votes of the 151,899 ones cast from the nearly 400,000 party members who registered to participate in the leadership election.
The new Liberal leader told members that they should be prepared to fight “the most important election of our lives” where the “stakes have never been higher.”
He said Canada is the “greatest country in the world and now our neighbors want to take us. No way,” said the incoming Canadian prime minister, referring to President Donald Trump’s repeated desire for the U.S. to annex Canada as the “51st state.”
TRUMP CRITIC MARK CARNEY POISED TO REPLACE TRUDEAU AS CANADA’S PRIME MINISTER
When Trump announced his tariffs against Canada last month, Carney issued a statement that “Canada will not bow down to a bully. We won’t stand by as illegal U.S. tariffs hurt our workers and their families. As Canadians, we need to face this challenge as one united team.”
In December, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly approached Carney to serve as Canadian finance minister, which caused the incumbent, Chrystia Freeland, to leave the Cabinet and publicly release her resignation letter in which she wrote that she and the prime minister had “found [themselves] at odds about the best path forward for Canada.”
Less than a month later, Trudeau announced his intention to step down as Liberal leader and prime minister, saying that if he’s “having to fight internal battles, [he] cannot be the best option” in a general election scheduled to be held no later than Oct. 20.
But opposition parties have vowed to force an earlier national vote through a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons against the Liberal minority government when Parliament is recalled on March 24.
On Saturday, Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported that Carney will likely call a snap election the week before the March 24 resumption of Parliament, with voting day on either April 28 or May 5.
The new Liberal leader is expected to meet with Trudeau on Monday to discuss the transition that will find Carney and a slimmed-down Cabinet sworn into office by Friday.
But regardless of the Liberals having a new leader with some momentum in the polls, Canada’s Conservatives under their leader, Pierre Poilievre, are ready for a “change election,” said Laura Kurkimaki, who served as deputy national campaign manager for the Conservative Party during the last federal election in 2021.
“We’ve had 10 years of a Liberal government, and Canadians are tired of that,” said Kurkimaki, who also served as principal secretary to former Conservative official opposition leader Erin O’Toole, whose party won the popular vote but not enough House seats to win the 2021 election.
Furthermore, she said the new Liberal leader would be running on “Trudeau’s record,” and while Carney wasn’t a member of the prime minister’s government, he was appointed last September by the Liberal Party to chair a task force on economic growth for Trudeau.
“The next election will be about who is going to make life more affordable for Canadians,” said Kurkimaki. “What’s going on in the U.S. impacts that, of course, and creates economic uncertainty in Canada.”
She added that the longer Carney waits to call an election, the Conservatives get more time to launch their attack ads against him.
During an election, parties face spending limits. But before the writ is dropped to launch the election period, parties can spend as much as they want on advertising, and the Conservatives raised more than double (about $29 million) last year than the Liberals, at about $11 million.
In an interview with The Spectator, Trump, commenting on the Conservative party leader, said Poilievre’s “biggest problem is he’s not a MAGA guy. … He’s not a Trump guy at all.”
The Canadian Conservative leader replied on X, “Mr. President, it is true. I am not MAGA.”
“I am for Canada First. Always,” Poilievre posted. “Canada has always been America’s best friend & ally. But we will NEVER be the 51st state.”
