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Mark Carney is going to be the new Canadian liberal party leader, but who is he? How could this newcomer to politics become the new Prime Minister?

Mark was raised in Edmonton, Alberta and went to St Francis Xavier High School where he won a scholarship to study in  the USA. 

 1. Went for higher education in United States 

Carney spent his tertiary years in the United States studying for his degree in economics at Harvard University. He sought to study English literature and math but attending lectures by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith brought forth an interest. He then pursued his Master’s and Doctorate in economics at Oxford University. 

2. Started at Goldman Sachs 

He started his career in the finance world at renowned Goldman Sachs where he spent 13 years. Goldman Sachs took him to multiple parts of the world, including London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto. 

3. Career at Bank of Canada 

In 2003 he left the private sector and joined the Bank of Canada as a Deputy Governor. This position oversees the country’s monetary policy that supports Canada’s healthcare and security. 

4. Governor of The Central Bank of Canada 

He continued to advance in his career and became a senior associate deputy minister of finance before eventually becoming the Governor of the Bank of Canada. He served during the 2008 global financial meltdown, navigating the crisis with leadership that was praised for keeping the country financially intact and protecting jobs. 

5. Bank of England 

After his tenure, he was recruited to be the Governor of the Bank of England in 2013. He is the first non-British person to do so. During his tenure in this role, he modernised the banking system and took care of the fallout resulting from the UK’s departure from the European Union. He left the post after seven years in 2020. 

6. Chair of the Financial Stability Board 

At the Bank of England, he also held the title of Chair of the Financial Stability Board. This saw him presiding over coordinated works from regulatory authorities worldwide. He was active in this position from 2011 to 2018. 

7. Holds three citizenships 

While Carney was born in Canada and has Canadian citizenship, he also holds British and Irish citizenship. He got his Irish citizenship in his twenties citing that his grandparents moved from Ireland to Canada and became a British citizen while running the Bank of England. 

He will not be holding those citizenships for long as he plans to renounce them as prime minister.

8. Never held a political office 

Carney has ties to politics being an informal advisor under Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He then worked on an economic task force for the 2025 general election. But with all this, he has never held a seat in Parliament.

He is marked as the first political outsider to become prime minister. He has called a General Election for April 28, 2025.

9. Was first considered as a replacement finance minister 

When Trudeau was still running, his finance minister Chrystia Freeland quit and he was considering making Carney his next finance minister before he resigned. However, Trudeau stepped down and Carney ran for the Liberal Party leadership. 

10. Climate change advocate 

He became a Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance for the UN in 2019. Carney worked to advocate for net-zero emissions. He is known for advocating for environmental sustainability and has carried this same energy to Canada and championed clean energy and climate policies. 

He has proposed shifting the financial burden of the carbon tax from consumers to big corporations and has said that under his leadership, the tax Canadian consumers and small businesses pay on fuel would be replaced with incentives to reduce carbon emissions.

He is also known as an advocate for environmental sustainability. In 2019 he became a UN special envoy for climate change.  In 2021 he launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a grouping of banks and financial institutions working to combat climate change.