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Mark Carney is the man Canada needs to challenge Trump

The former governor of the Bank of England will be a formidable opponent, writes Chris Blackhurst. From economic expertise to climate advocacy, Carney represents a new kind of challenge for the US president – with plenty of surprises in store

Monday 10 March 2025 17:58 GMT
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Mark Carney: Canada’s new PM calls Trump tariffs ‘the greatest crisis of our lifetime’

In Michael Wolff’s new book, All or Nothing, about Donald Trump’s resounding election victory, he describes how, for a long time, the new US president thought he had no chance.

Trump assumed that Joe Biden would not stay the course, but expected Michelle Obama to take his place. Trump was afraid of her. He did not relish confronting the smart Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate.

Now, Canada’s Liberal Party has just chosen another Michelle Obama-esque person as its prime minister. Mark Carney might lack Obama’s obvious empathy and touch, but he is similarly rigorous, intellectually equipped, capable of fighting untruth with fact – and able to master technical detail. Self-assured and confident, he is just the sort of opponent Trump struggles with.

While Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was passionate and flew the nationalist flag, his tendency to let his emotions get the better of him – even bursting into tears on occasion – played to Trump’s aggression. Carney is altogether different.

Like Trump, he is not a politician. He hails from a highly successful investment banking background, having made a fortune at Goldman Sachs. Trump regards bankers with trepidation as, while they have the money that he desires, they are also well-equipped to see through his boasting.

Carney steered Canada through the 2008 financial crisis, winning widespread praise as governor of the central bank. His handling of the drama earned him a call from George Osborne, then British chancellor, to be the next governor of the Bank of England.

The “rock star central banker” did the same at the Old Lady, correctly warning about the risks to the UK economy of leaving the EU, then steadying the ship after Brexit, calming the City. The Brexiteers stooped to hurling personal epithets. Jacob Rees-Mogg called him the “high priest of project fear”, but Carney would not be diverted.

After the Bank of England, he served as a UN envoy on finance and climate change, arguing that financiers should be doing more to help combat the impending environmental catastrophe. His analysis could apply to the US leader, accusing politicians and the markets of short-termism. In his 2021 book Value(s): An Economist’s Guide to Everything that Matters, Carney expounded on this thesis, saying that finance-driven capitalism had lost sight of society’s needs. Sounds familiar?

It's doubtful whether Trump has a copy on his Mar-a-Lago bedside table, but he ought to be wary. If Carney has a weakness that may yet cost him the Canadian election when one is called, as it must be to give him the popular mandate he requires, then it’s an inability to connect with ordinary people. Trump, of course, has no problem in that regard. But Carney is unafraid of engaging with Trump. He would not repeat the same mistakes as Volodymyr Zelensky did in allowing Trump and JD Vance to trample over him in front of the White House cameras.

“I know how to manage crises… in a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, and you need negotiating skills,” he said.

He also said in an interview last month: “President Trump probably thinks Canada will cave in. But we are going to stand up to a bully, and we’re not going to back down. We’re united – and we will retaliate.” That last word will resonate loudly in Washington.

As is being proved already on tariffs, the markets could prove to be Trump’s biggest foe and, where they are concerned, Carney knows how to address them and which levers to pull. He speaks their language. Trump will not like it.

When Carney popped up on the big screen at the Labour conference endorsing the party, I was contacted by a right-wing newspaper. They wanted a profile, “because he ticks every one of our hate boxes”.

I asked what they were: “Labour, Remainer, eco-campaigner, married to a hippy chick, rich, foreign.”

That’s not a bad list for someone preparing to take on Trump. Needless to say, I declined their offer.

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