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Who is Mark Carney, the next prime minister of Canada?

Published: 10 Mar. 2025, 10:56

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney smiles as he speaks after winning the race to become leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on March 9. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Former central banker Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after a Liberal Party leadership vote in a landslide.

Carney is 59. He was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, on March 16, 1965, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta.

Carney ran the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. After helping Canada manage the worst impacts of the 2008 financial crisis, he was recruited to become the first non-Brit to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.

In 2020, he began serving as the United Nations' special envoy for climate action and finance.

Carney is a former Goldman Sachs executive. He worked for 13 years in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto, before being appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He has no experience in politics.

Carney received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, and master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Oxford University. Like many Canadians, he played ice hockey, serving as a backup goalie for Harvard.

Carney has Canadian, U.K. and Irish citizenship. He has moved to eventually have solely Canadian citizenship, which is not required by law but is seen as politically wise.

His wife Diana is British-born and he has four daughters.

His chances of remaining prime minister for more than a few weeks seem to be improving. In a mid-January poll by Nanos, the Liberals trailed the opposition Conservatives and their leader Pierre Poilievre 47 percent to 20 percent. This week the latest poll has Liberals at 34 percent and the Conservatives at 37 percent.

AP