The Fort Worth Press - Mark Carney: Canada's new PM charted unusual path to power

USD -
AED 3.67265
AFN 70.546592
ALL 91.203808
AMD 391.740403
ANG 1.801057
AOA 912.000367
ARS 1062.293889
AUD 1.580804
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.70397
BAM 1.793596
BBD 2.017616
BDT 121.412753
BGN 1.79727
BHD 0.377039
BIF 2961.115187
BMD 1
BND 1.333804
BOB 6.905691
BRL 5.744604
BSD 0.999271
BTN 86.863258
BWP 13.615125
BYN 3.270196
BYR 19600
BZD 2.007309
CAD 1.43875
CDF 2876.000362
CHF 0.882785
CLF 0.024242
CLP 930.290396
CNY 7.23785
CNH 7.239504
COP 4097.1
CRC 499.227408
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.120195
CZK 22.998504
DJF 177.720393
DKK 6.858404
DOP 62.834427
DZD 133.641252
EGP 50.468299
ERN 15
ETB 131.257916
EUR 0.91555
FJD 2.29104
FKP 0.772529
GBP 0.772678
GEL 2.77504
GGP 0.772529
GHS 15.489658
GIP 0.772529
GMD 72.000355
GNF 8641.029991
GTQ 7.703912
GYD 209.078278
HKD 7.77515
HNL 25.557711
HRK 6.925804
HTG 131.05178
HUF 367.030388
IDR 16328
ILS 3.646745
IMP 0.772529
INR 86.948404
IQD 1309.158608
IRR 42100.000352
ISK 134.460386
JEP 0.772529
JMD 156.497178
JOD 0.70904
JPY 148.64904
KES 129.450385
KGS 87.450384
KHR 4003.980136
KMF 451.850384
KPW 900.107477
KRW 1451.090383
KWD 0.30807
KYD 0.83281
KZT 500.836837
LAK 21647.72128
LBP 89540.03329
LKR 296.189646
LRD 199.862436
LSL 18.182085
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.810417
MAD 9.671373
MDL 17.783301
MGA 4659.693786
MKD 56.527931
MMK 2098.782746
MNT 3473.100493
MOP 8.000055
MRU 39.712039
MUR 45.150378
MVR 15.410378
MWK 1732.842384
MXN 19.928504
MYR 4.446504
MZN 63.903729
NAD 18.182585
NGN 1553.770377
NIO 36.773809
NOK 10.755555
NPR 138.979756
NZD 1.741816
OMR 0.385146
PAB 0.999344
PEN 3.665734
PGK 4.107535
PHP 57.322038
PKR 279.925902
PLN 3.842421
PYG 7934.739246
QAR 3.64225
RON 4.574304
RSD 107.660373
RUB 85.192859
RWF 1403.796772
SAR 3.750568
SBD 8.411149
SCR 14.325475
SDG 601.000339
SEK 10.129415
SGD 1.337604
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.830371
SLL 20969.501083
SOS 571.171783
SRD 36.319038
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.743816
SYP 13001.985554
SZL 18.188488
THB 33.550369
TJS 10.892742
TMT 3.51
TND 3.087363
TOP 2.342104
TRY 36.482804
TTD 6.785054
TWD 32.941038
TZS 2660.000335
UAH 41.453548
UGX 3662.556912
UYU 42.589485
UZS 12944.37541
VES 64.09537
VND 25515
VUV 123.23919
WST 2.767377
XAF 601.566376
XAG 0.0296
XAU 0.000335
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.752496
XOF 601.555343
XPF 109.363179
YER 246.750363
ZAR 18.19985
ZMK 9001.203587
ZMW 28.605885
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    66.0200

    66.02

    +100%

  • JRI

    0.0335

    12.83

    +0.26%

  • NGG

    0.8900

    63.21

    +1.41%

  • SCS

    0.2000

    10.99

    +1.82%

  • CMSD

    0.1500

    23.35

    +0.64%

  • RELX

    1.1200

    48.93

    +2.29%

  • CMSC

    0.0500

    23.22

    +0.22%

  • BCC

    2.9700

    99.35

    +2.99%

  • RIO

    1.8400

    63.04

    +2.92%

  • AZN

    1.0900

    77.6

    +1.4%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    39.49

    +0.66%

  • BCE

    -0.1990

    23.47

    -0.85%

  • RYCEF

    0.0500

    10.4

    +0.48%

  • VOD

    0.0500

    9.55

    +0.52%

  • BTI

    -0.0200

    41.36

    -0.05%

  • BP

    1.0200

    33.39

    +3.05%

Mark Carney: Canada's new PM charted unusual path to power
Mark Carney: Canada's new PM charted unusual path to power / Photo: © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Mark Carney: Canada's new PM charted unusual path to power

He was born near the Arctic, led the central banks of two major economies and has become Canada's prime minister despite never having served in parliament.

Text size:

Mark Carney's path to the top job in Canadian politics has been unusual but, as he said when he launched his campaign to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, so are the circumstances.

"Our times are anything but ordinary," Carney told supporters in the Western city of Edmonton in January.

Carney has called the threats posed by US President Donald Trump "the most serious crisis of our lifetime."

The United States wants "our resources, our water, our land, our country," he said after being elected Sunday to replace Trudeau as leader of the governing Liberal Party.

Carney says his experience leading the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and heading the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote equipped him for the moment.

- Unique background -

But he may not be prime minister for long.

A Canadian election is expected in weeks and current polls show a tight race between Carney's Liberals and the opposition Conservatives.

No matter how long he serves, his tenure will be unique.

Carney, who turns 60 on Sunday, is the first Canadian prime minister with no political experience. He has never held an elected public office or served in the cabinet.

He was born in Fort Smith, a small town in the Northwest Territories, where his parents were teachers, but he was raised in Edmonton, Alberta's capital.

Like many Canadians, he played hockey in his youth. He studied at Harvard in the United States and Oxford in England, and the initial part of his career saw him make a fortune as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, working in New York, London, Tokyo and Toronto.

Carney then joined the Canadian civil service, eventually being appointed governor of the Bank of Canada by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2008.

In 2013, the government of then-British prime minister David Cameron tapped him to lead the Bank of England, making Carney the first non-Briton to lead the bank in its more than 300-year history.

- 'Boring' but 'reassuring' -

Daniel Beland, director of the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University, described Carney as a "technocrat."

"He's a boring guy who in general doesn't have a lot of charisma," Beland said.

But he noted with Canada rattled by Trump's trade chaos and attacks on its sovereignty, rigorous competence with no flash may be appealing.

Carney presents "the image of a reassuring guy who knows what he is talking about," Beland said.

Lori Turnbull of Dalhousie University cautioned that Carney's potential struggles to connect with voters could prove a liability.

"He is unusually well-equipped to deal with economic crises" but "it's very hard to see how anybody would be successful in politics if you can't bring people on board with you," she told AFP.

The Conservatives, led by 45-year-old Pierre Poilievre, are running attack ads branding Carney as "sneaky" -- an early look at how they might plan to wage the campaign against him.

Carney is personally wealthy, spent significant parts of his career outside of Canada, worked at a major investment bank, and was chairman at one of Canada's largest corporations, Brookfield.

"The Conservatives are trying to cast him as an elite who doesn't understand what regular people go through. And I think if he can't communicate well, then he runs the risk of being typecast in that way," Turnbull said.

Climate change, and Carney's plans to address it, will also feature in the upcoming campaign.

"Carbon Tax Carney" had emerged as a favorite Tory attack line, seeking to tie Carney to an unpopular Trudeau policy that saw some households face a marginal tax to offset emissions.

Climate has been central to the latter part of Carney's career, but he said as prime minister he would focus on investment-led solutions, like green technology, that create profit and jobs.

"Very much we are emphasizing the commercial aspect of it," he said recently in an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast.

"This is where the world is going."

N.Patterson--TFWP