Mark Carney Elected as New Canadian Prime Minister
After 10 years, Canada finally has a new Prime Minister.
After a pressure campaign by the struggling liberals forced Justin Trudeau out, they selected Mark Carney to replace him. Carney, the former head both the Bank of Canada and the Band of England, has never held a seat in parliament before. Liberal voters hoped that by selecting an outsider they may be able to weaken any attempts to tie him to the unpopular Trudeau government.
Carney’s first act in office was setting the unpopular consumer carbon tax to zero, which was a campaign promise by the conservative party. After being dead in the polls for months, the Liberal party is now the favorite to win the prime minister race on April 28th.
The main reason for this, however, is due to the trade crisis they face with the US. President Trump’s call to make Canada the 51st state has deeply offended many Canadians, and the 25% auto tariff has further angered them. 90% of Canadians in February said that they were following news of the trade war closely.
Carney plans on adding tariffs to all US vehicles not covered by their trade deal, adding to the more than 60 billion tariffs Canada has put on American goods in response to Trumps tariffs. He has also campaigned on moving Canadian trade away from America, deeming the U.S. to be an unreliable partner.
Both he and Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, have both agreed that whoever wins the election will be the one to meet with Trump to discuss trade.
