Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney leaves after speaking to reporters at the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., on Sept. 10, 2024.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Former central banker Mark Carney said he is considering running to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister, hours after Mr. Trudeau announced his resignation.
Mr. Carney, the 59-year-old former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, said he is “encouraged and honoured by the support that I’ve already been hearing from Liberal MPs and Liberals across the country,” in a statement Monday night.
“I’ll be considering this decision closely with my family over the coming few days,” Mr. Carney said.
Mr. Trudeau announced Monday that he will step down as Prime Minister after the Liberal Party chooses a new leader, signalling the end of his nine-year tenure leading the country. The next federal election, which was scheduled for October, is now expected to happen this spring. The party will have to install a new leader who will face a tight deadline to organize a national campaign and set themselves apart from Mr. Trudeau.
Mr. Carney is considered a potential successor for Mr. Trudeau, and his Monday statement was the first time he publicly addressed whether he was considering leaving the private sector for federal politics.
The Prime Minister has tried to recruit the star central banker for years, and discussions between Mr. Carney and the Liberals had ramped up over the past several months. In July, Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that he had asked Mr. Carney to join the government after The Globe reported on the talks.
At that time, Mr. Carney turned down the offer but since September he has been serving as a special adviser and chair of the Liberal Party task force on economic growth. He was also asked to beat the fundraising drums for the party, which has in recent years placed a distant second in fundraising efforts behind the Conservatives.
The Globe reported in December that talks were back on between Mr. Carney and the Prime Minister’s Office, and that Mr. Trudeau told then-deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland in a Zoom call that she was going to be replaced as finance minister by Mr. Carney. That led Ms. Freeland to resign from cabinet hours before she was scheduled to deliver the fall economic statement.
Mr. Carney did not take up the offer of becoming finance minister. Two sources close to Mr. Carney told The Globe at the time that he was not willing to be part of the government even though he did not immediately close down discussions. The Globe is not identifying the sources so they would speak freely about Mr. Carney’s deliberations. Mr. Carney did not respond to questions from The Globe in December about the offer.
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In a public rebuke of Mr. Trudeau on the day of her resignation, Ms. Freeland said she and the Prime Minister had been at odds over the country’s finances for weeks. The fall economic statement showed a $61.9-billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year – $20-billion higher than Ms. Freeland had pledged.
Mr. Carney, who is currently chair of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and head of its transition investing arm, said the country needs a plan “to get Canada back on track and to build the strongest economy that works for all Canadians,” in his statement.
Parliament is prorogued until March 24. The Liberal Party has said its national executive will meet this week to begin the leadership process but did not clarify Monday if it would conduct the leadership race within the next three months.
Senior political reporter Marieke Walsh analyzes the fallout of Justin Trudeau's resignation as prime minister, from the lonely visual of him making the announcement on Jan. 6 to the contenders to take his place and the very short runway they have to make an impression.
The Globe and Mail