Canada has a new prime minister designate.
Former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney was elected by the Liberal Party with a wide margin of support. It’s expected that Carney will call a general election in the coming days after being sworn in as the new prime minister.
The announcement came near the end of the Liberal gathering in Toronto. Mark Carney will become the twenty-fourth prime minister of Canada. He won 85.9 percent of the vote on the first ballot, an overwhelming majority. Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland came in second with 8 percent.
Carney told the crowd that the Liberal Party is united and ready to fight to build a better country. He said he grew up learning Canadian values and will take those values as the country faces its greatest challenge in a generation. He says the fight now is against Donald Trump and his tariffs, protecting Canadian sovereignty, and against the Conservative opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre.
“Donald Trump thinks he can weaken us with his plan to divide and conquer. Pierre Poilievre’s plan will leave us divided and ready to be conquered,” Carney said. “My government will put into action our plan to build a stronger economy, to create new trading relationships with reliable trading partners, and to secure our borders.”
Also speaking last night were Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in what is likely his last official speech as PM, and former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. At 91 years of age, Chretien still showed some of the old fire he had while in office.
The next fixed election date is October 20th of this year, but a national election is expected to be called much sooner. As soon as Carney is sworn in, which could be within a couple of days, he'll have the power to call an election. He could also wait until Parliament resumes on March 24th and try to push on with governing the country.
