Mark Carney wins Liberal Party race to become Canada's new PM

Canada's Liberal Party overwhelmingly elected Mark Carney as its new leader and the country's next prime minister on Sunday.

Carney, 59, won 85.9 percent of the ballots cast in the Liberal Party leadership vote, according to the final tally.

Carney is a two-time central banker and crisis fighter about to face his biggest challenge of all: steering Canada through United States President Donald Trump's tariffs.

The Liberals announced Carney as Justin Trudeau's successor on Sunday after party members voted in a nominating contest. Trudeau resigned in January, facing low approval ratings after nearly a decade in office.

The 59-year-old Carney is a political outsider who has never held office, which would in normal times have killed his candidacy in Canada. But distance from Trudeau and a high-profile banking career played to his advantage, and Carney argues he is the only person prepared to handle Trump.

Carney, who garnered the most party endorsements and the most money raised among the four Liberal candidates, will be the first person to become Canadian prime minister without being a legislator and without having had any cabinet experience.

He argues Canada must fight Trump's tariffs with dollar for dollar retaliation and diversify trading relations in the medium term.

In the next election, which must be held by October 20, the Liberals will face off against the official opposition Conservatives, whose leader Pierre Poilievre is a career politician with little international exposure.

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Source: TRT