Summary
Mark Carney has been elected as the new Liberal Party leader in Canada with a commanding 85.9% of votes, following Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
The former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor will become Canada’s 24th prime minister within days.
In his victory speech, Carney took aim at both Donald Trump and Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, vowing to maintain Canada’s tariffs until Americans “show us respect.”
Carney, despite never holding elected office, enters leadership as Canada faces trade tensions with the U.S. and a potential early election. He must secure a parliamentary seat and finalize the transition with Trudeau.
Is this good? For you guys? I hope so. Canada is now the guiding star.
Compared to Pierre Poilievre (Maple MAGA forgone winner of the next election before Trudeau resigned)… 10000000000000x better
Overall? probably a bit better than usual
He has a PhD in Economics and was the head of the Bank of Canada and more recently the head of the Bank of England. So yeah……can’t think of a better resume to navigate us through a trade war.
Worth noting he was head of Bank of Canada during the 08 crash and was pretty widely lauded for navigating it so well. So he’s proven himself in a crisis.
Would I prefer someone further left? Of course, but as long as we live in a market economy we may as well have someone knowledgeable about it and who has at least expressed a desire to make it more fair.
He at least won’t privatize your healthcare.
And actually just announced the full expansion of their dental plan by June. Not perfect since it’s means-tested but that’s going to be relief for many thousands of people
Is this reporting true?
After maintaining frontrunner status throughout the two-month race, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor will become this country’s next, and 24th prime minister within days.
How does an unelected banker walk into becoming Prime Minister? Doesn’t he need to be elected by Canadians first?
If true, that seems like a horrendous hole in the system.
It’s how parliamentary democracy works. The Prime Minister (PM) is elected by Members of Parliament (MPs) who are, in turn, directly elected by canadians. Typically, the Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party, but not always since a coalition of smaller parties could theoretically band together to elect their choice for PM. Carney was just elected leader of The Liberal Party of Canada, the largest party currently sitting in the Canadian lower house, by members of said party.
Our head of state and commander in chief is King Charles III, whose power is severely limited by constitutional and conventional traditions. Typically, in a parliamentary system, the head of state is merely a figurehead with no ability to influence policy directly.
Our Cabinet, unlike in the American Presidential system where cabinet members are unelected and appointed by the executive, are by convention chosen by the PM from amongst the directly elected MPs.
The PM can be forced to resign, alongside their Cabinet of Ministers, when a majority of MPs support a ‘motion/vote of no confidence.’ An election can be called at any time, with the maximum period between elections being 4 years.
This system of governance is shared with most Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential democracies with some minor differences.
Thanks for that summary. I think the big gap in my understanding is that the PM doesn’t even have to be an elected official. They essentially always are, but not having that codified is a surprise.
In my nightmare scenario, the cons eke out a majority, toss Pierre, and name Elon Musk as PM is Canada.
They can’t toss Pierre. He would have to step down (like Trudeau) or die. Then the party re-elects a new head who would become PM until an election is called or required as mentioned earlier, we will have an election no later than October this year.
Not at all. The Conservative Party (like all parties) have regular party conventions. They can conduct a leadership review at the convention and start the process to replace the leader at that time.
