Banker Mark Carney Wins Race to Lead Liberal Party, and Canada
Trump Administration
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Mark Carney won the race to become Canada’s next prime minister, putting the former central banker in charge of the country just as US President Donald Trump’s administration threatens its economic future. The ex-Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor won the contest to lead the Liberal Party of Canada with nearly 86% of the vote. The transfer of power from Justin Trudeau to Carney is expected to take place within days, and it’s possible he will call a national election soon after. Bloomberg’s Laura Kane reports.
Canada’s Liberal Party members believe that Mark Carney can persuade voters that he can protect their interests while President Trump threatens to ruin the country’s economy.
President Trump talked about his plans for the U.S. economy and tariffs during a “Sunday Morning Futures” interview on Fox News.
From tariffs to tax bills to DOGE and federal budget cuts, President Trump has issued a myriad of policies impacting the economy since taking office in January, and the markets are responding accordingly.
On this week’s episode of Capitol Gains, anchor Madison Mills, Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul, and Senior Columnist Rick Newman take a look at the current state of the economy and try to understand Trump’s economic plan happening in real-time.
Newman assesses the current economic landscape. “We have now seen the S&P 500 (^GSPC) stock index — it is down 4.5% since Trump took office. That is not a global phenomenon. The stock index in China, in Europe, and even in Mexico is up while our stock index is down.”
“Is Trump just playing a long game here?” Newman asks. “Is he like… I know what I’m going to do in two months and stocks are going to go back up?”
Werschkul agrees a long-term gain game plan from the president is a possibility, but not a guarantee.
“When you talk to Trump folks about that – in the end, this will work itself out as a wash. Once we get our big tax cuts at the end of the year, that’ll help balance some of this out. So if you kind of take the tough medicine now, a lot of this will work out in the long run. Whether that happens remains to be seen. But we’ve definitely got, as somebody put last week, a lot of veggies early on, the question is whether the dessert ever comes.”
To learn more, listen to the full episode of Capitol Gains here.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch more Capitol Gains.
Capitol Gains is Yahoo Finance’s unique look at how US government policy will impact your bottom line long after the Presidential election polls have closed.
This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff
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Mark Carney’s thumping victory in the race to succeed Justin Trudeau makes him not only leader of the Liberal Party but, by default, the next Canadian prime minister.
It’s an extraordinary result for a man with very little political experience. He has never been elected as an MP, let alone served in a cabinet post.
What Carney does have though – as Governor of the Bank of Canada during the global financial crisis and Governor of the Bank of England during the Brexit negotiations – is a long track record in global finance during times of economic turbulence.
And at a moment like this, Carney has been arguing, that could prove invaluable.
Politics in this country has been turned on its head as a result of what’s happening south of the border, with US President Donald Trump launching a trade war and threatening to make Canada the 51st state of America.
Addressing a crowd of Liberal supporters after the result of the leadership contest was announced on Sunday evening, Carney promised to face down the threats from Trump, over the tariffs and the claims on Canada’s sovereignty.
“Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” he said. “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.
“Americans should make no mistake”, he warned. “In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”
He repeatedly referred to the US president by name and said his government would keep retaliatory tariffs in place until “America shows us respect”.
How he will translate his strong language on the stage in Ottawa into practical solutions to those twin challenges was, however, far less clear.
Liberals might hope that Trudeau’s exit from the stage will, in itself, help clear the air.
Instead of the frequent mocking of Trudeau by Trump as a “weak” leader, they might dare to believe that Carney will at least be able to reset the personal chemistry.
On the other hand, if he has to push hard in an attempt to win concessions, will he also risk incurring the wrath of a man who uses unpredictability as a political art form?
Much of that will depend on how serious the US president is in his insistence that he wants to impose real economic pain on Canada and annex its territory.
And that’s a hard question to answer.
After Carney had accepted the party’s nomination, I caught up with former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, who served for a decade from 1993 and who’d taken to the stage earlier in the evening.
Did he think Mr Trump was being serious?
“You know, I don’t know,” he told me. “Do you know? Does anyone know? I’m not a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. He changes his mind every two or three hours. So [for him] to be leader of the free world, it is preoccupying for everybody.”
While the US threat is dominating Canadian politics – Carney described the current situation as “dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust” – there are still domestic political matters to focus on too, not least the prospect of a general election.
Once sworn in as prime minister in the coming days, Carney will have to decide whether to call a snap election. If he doesn’t, the opposition parties in Parliament could force one later this month through a no-confidence vote.
Before Trudeau said he was stepping down, the Liberal Party was facing electoral oblivion.
After nine years in power, he’d become a liability and a lightning rod for public anger over the rising cost of living despite record levels of government spending and a ballooning national debt.
The stage appeared to be set for the Liberals to be swept from power by a Conservative Party under the stewardship of the young, populist leader Pierre Poilievre, who had turned lambasting Trudeau into something of a sport.
Now, not only has he lost the advantage of a deeply unpopular opponent, his political style is at risk of appearing out of step. In the current environment, even a loose alignment with the politics of Trump is a potential liability with Canadian voters.
The Republican president, for his part, recently said Canada’s Conservative leader was not Maga enough.
The Liberal Party is suddenly feeling a sense of rejuvenation – the gap in the opinion polls with the Conservatives, once a gulf, has narrowed dramatically. And you could feel that palpable sense of optimism in the room on Sunday evening.
Aware of the danger, Poilievre accused Liberals of “trying to trick Canadians” to elect them to a fourth term. But his statement also highlighted how Trump is changing the political messaging on this side of the border.
“It is the same Liberal team that drove up taxes, housing costs, and food prices, while Carney personally profited from moving billions of dollars and thousands of jobs out of Canada to the United States,” Poilievre wrote.
“We need a new Conservative government that will put Canada First – for a change.”
Donald Trump’s election has led Canada to rally to round its flag and has propelled a former central bank governor – an archetypal member of the country’s political elite – to the highest office in the land.
The Conservatives may still lead in the polls, but for the first time in a long time, the Liberals believe that, under Carney, they have a fighting chance again.
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