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On Friday, Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister of Canada, assuming leadership of a nation rocked by a deterioration in US relations since President Donald Trump’s comeback.
Carney was overwhelmingly supported by the ruling Liberal Party to succeed Justin Trudeau, hoping that his background as the head of two central banks through significant crises would reassure Canadians in the face of a potentially disastrous trade war.
He told reporters, “We’re going to get right to work,” prior to taking the oath of office. The first cabinet meeting will be held following the swearing-in ceremony.
Next week, he will travel to Europe for the first time as prime minister, according to diplomatic sources who spoke to AFP.
Carney, who turns 60 on Sunday, is a political novice who has never been elected to public office. However, with a general election in Canada expected to take place in a few weeks, his campaigning abilities may soon be put to the test.
The vote is likely to be dominated by Trump’s threats.
By declaring that Canada is not “viable” on its own and ought to be annexed by Washington, the US president has attempted to pressure the country by enacting broad import tariffs and threatening additional levies.
Carney, who was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister during a ceremony in Ottawa, has called Trump’s position the biggest threat to the country in a generation.
Carney declared Sunday, “Everything in my life has prepared me for this moment,” following his victory in the campaign for the Liberal Party leadership.
Prior to his tenure as governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008–2009 financial crisis and his leadership of the Bank of England amid the chaos surrounding the Brexit vote, he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
He has made an effort to portray himself as someone who was created specifically to guide a nation through a trade war with the US, which was once Canada’s closest ally but is now a nation that Carney claims Canada can “no longer trust.”
Carney will add a “new dynamic” to US diplomacy, according to Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who remains in her position in the new cabinet, during a Group of Seven summit in Quebec.
Prior to Carney’s inauguration, Joly stated that she and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is now at the G7, were attempting to arrange for Trump and Carney to speak “in the next couple of days.”
Carney’s team of 23 ministers, which is smaller than Trudeau’s 36, retains the backbone of the old guard in Washington, including Defence Minister Bill Blair, Finance Portfolio’s Francois-Philippe Champagne, and Trade Portfolio’s Dominic LeBlanc.
