Mark Carney has become the new leader of the ruling Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding incumbent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Carney was the only candidate for the Liberal leadership who was not part of the government of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He won with 85.9 per cent of the vote. About 150,000 Liberal Party members participated in the election.
In his first statement since winning the intra-party election, Carney pledged that Canada would never become part of the United States, despite threats from US President Donald Trump.
Carney said in his victory speech on Sunday amid escalating relations between Ottawa and Washington over trade tariffs:
“America is not Canada and Canada will never, ever be part of America in any way shape or form. We are not the ones who started this argument … On trade, like hockey, Canada will win.”
Justin Trudeau, who has been Canada’s prime minister since 2015, announced his decision to step down in early January. Mark Carney will take office after Trudeau tendered his resignation to Canada’s governor-general.
Trudeau expressed support for Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelensky’s altercation with US leader Donald Trump. In addition, the head of the Canadian Foreign Ministry Melanie Joly on X said that she held a telephone conversation with her Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha. According to her, Ottawa will continue to fully support Kyiv.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, Canada has joined in supporting the Ukrainian armed forces with weapons. Ottawa transferred Leopard 2 tanks, 200 Senator armoured personnel carriers, 39 armoured combat support vehicles, a NASAMS anti-aircraft missile system with ammunition, M777 howitzers, anti-tank weapons and other weapons to Kyiv.
Mark Carney was head of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013. For the next seven years he was also the head of the Bank of England. He served as Justin Trudeau’s economic adviser. During the pre-election debates, he announced his intention to cut taxes for the middle class, increase defence spending to 2% of GDP and above, and promised to impose tariffs on American goods on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
