If you do not follow politics very closely, you may be feeling lost in the shuffle of current events. In the span of a week, Mark Carney has won the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership race and been appointed the role of prime minister. Furthermore, there is an election that will definitely come this year, just likely sooner than we thought. This is a historical and unique moment in Canadian history, and it comes at an incredibly tense time in both internal and international politics. The chaos has been disorienting and exhausting to pay attention to.
Not all hope is lost. Staying in touch with current events is difficult, yet nonetheless important. Although the news is changing at a rapid pace and it may feel hopeless to even try to stay in touch with the endless stream of jibber-jabber, this article has fallen into your hands and will cover the state of politics in Canada as efficiently and clearly as possible. Who is this Mark Carney guy, and how did he become the Prime Minister of Canada without a federal election?
Carney was born in the Northwest Territories, was raised in Alberta, and graduated from Harvard University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, after which he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from Oxford University in 1993 and 1995. Carney has highlighted in his credentials that he served as governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013. This means that he was in charge of managing monetary policy, meeting inflation targets set by the Government of Canada and the Bank, and controlled the Bank’s operations by heading the Board of Directors and Governing Council.
After he served as the governor of the Bank of Canada, Carney was recruited to serve as the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, and he currently serves as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance. As special envoy, he is tasked with shifting both public and private financial markets in order to meet the goals laid out by the Paris Climate Agreement.
As of March 14, Mark Carney is officially the 24th Prime Minister of Canada. Although he is not a career politician, he is making his political debut as the head of government for the entire country. This may seem somewhat dubious or even undemocratic, as there was no federal election that gave him such power. So, how does this work?
It all goes back to January 6, when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would be resigning from his role as leader of the Liberal Party, and as prime minister when a new leader was selected. This set into motion the process of a party leadership campaign. Alongside Carney, three other candidates put their names forward to run and successfully got their names on the ballot — former deputy prime minister and minister of finance Chrystia Freeland, member of Parliament (MP) Karina Gould, and businessman and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis.
Carney won the Liberal leadership vote in a landslide, voted in on a ranked choice ballot by registered members of the Liberal Party. He filled Trudeau’s role of party leader, and was soon thereafter sworn in as prime minister. Any Canadian citizen aged 14 and up who is not a member of any other political party can register as a member of the Liberal Party, and could therefore vote in the election.
The election was not open to everyone regardless of party because, even though the circumstances of this leadership vote would result in a new Prime Minister, it was reserved for only Liberal Party members like any other party leadership race would be. This resulted in a unique circumstance because Carney is simultaneously filling the role of prime minister and party leader. The last time this occurred was in 1993, when Kim Campbell became Canada’s first and only female prime minister after winning the Progressive Conservative leadership race following the resignation of then-prime minister Brian Mulroney.
The good news for those dissatisfied with the results of Trudeau’s resignation is that a federal election is predicted to be called on March 23. By law, the campaign period must be no shorter than 37 days, and no longer than 51 days. This means that Canada could form a new government as soon as April 28 — just over a month away.
To vote in Canada, there are three general requirements; you must be 18 or older on election day, be a Canadian citizen, and you must prove your identity and address. If you will be eligible to vote in the next election, you can register to vote on the Elections Canada website.
1 “Mark Carney.” Accessed March 16, 2025. Bank of Canada. Source Link.
2 “About Us.” Accessed March 16, 2025. Bank of Canada. Source Link
3 “Mark Carney.” (2025.) Mark Carney. https://markcarney.ca/.
4 “Mr. Mark Joseph Carney of Canada - Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.” 2019, December 1. United Nations Secretary-General. Source Link
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