Canada Elects New Prime Minister to Succeed Trudeau

Mark Carney, a political newcomer and former governor of the Central Bank of Canada, has won the election to lead the ruling Liberal Party of Canada and will now succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, Reuters reports.

The 59-year-old Carney won 86% of the vote, beating former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in an election that saw nearly 152,000 party members participate.

Carney, who previously headed the central banks of Canada and England, will be the first Canadian prime minister with no political experience.

His coming to power comes amid a trade war with the United States launched by US President Donald Trump.

Carney stressed that Canada cannot allow Trump to weaken its economy. 

During the election campaign, Carney said he supported retaliatory tariffs against the United States and a coordinated strategy to stimulate investment.

‘There is someone who is trying to weaken our economy. He is attacking Canadian workers, families and businesses. We cannot let him succeed,’ Carney said at the party convention.

He also stressed that his government would act quickly and out of the box. ‘It's not going to be business as usual... We're going to have to do things we couldn't have imagined before, at a speed we thought was impossible,’ Carney said.

Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January after more than nine years at the helm of the government, remained optimistic about the country's future. ‘Make no mistake, this is a defining moment for the nation. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given,’ Trudeau said.

On 4 March, Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian imports. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau announced the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion worth of US goods.

Trump eventually suspended the tariffs until 2 April.