The ex-banker Mark Carney has won the Canadian polls, edging out his Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre. The Liberals can celebrate. The latest news emerging out of Ottawa on Tuesday noon, suggests that Liberals picked up an extra seat in Quebec, and thereby managed to increase their number of seats, but not quite enough to get to their coveted majority.
The National Post said that Liberals were on course to win a projected 169 seats — three seats short of a majority.
Carney began his victory speech with the questions, "Who’s ready? Who’s ready — who’s ready — to stand up for Canada with me? And who’s ready — who’s ready — to build Canada strong?"
He struck some right notes, talking about humility, which he said "underscores the importance of governing as a team in cabinet and in caucus and working constructively with all parties across Parliament, of working in partnership with the provinces and the territories and with Indigenous peoples..." Although he spoke about the "American betrayal," he has already had a telephonic conversation with US President Donald Trump, the elephant in the room. Carney also said, "We will strengthen our relations with reliable partners in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. "
"It’s time to build new trade and energy corridors, working in partnership with the provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples. It’s time. It’s time to build hundreds of thousands of not just good jobs, but good careers in the skilled trades," he added.
Now, Carney has his hands full, to make as he has promised, "Canada strong, Canada, free, Canada, forever. ."
The first thing he has to look into is transforming the economy. Then comes foreign policy. He will be meeting US President Donald Trump "in the near future."
To nobody's surprise, as mentioned earlier, both leaders spoke on the phone on Tuesday. A rather good beginning, so to say.
Writing about Carney's victory, The Conversation noted that Canada’s 2025 federal election will be remembered as a "game-changer."
To understand the nuances, one need to read it along with The Guardian piece by Leyland Cecco who rightly attributed Carney's victory to Trump and circumstance.
He recalled that half a year ago the Liberal was in crisis before political reality forced Justin Trudeau to step down.
While Labour struggled with internal issues, Donald Trump began to suggest – seemingly in earnest – that the US should annex Canada and making it the 51st state, a mission he said could be accomplished with economic coercion.
“The thing to remember is that Carney candidacy, absent this crisis, would have felt different,” Cecco quoted Peter Donolo, a political strategist and director of communications for prime minister Jean Chrétien. “His mistakes would have been more, would have been enlarged. He would have come under more criticism and scrutiny."
However, Tonda MacCharles writing in Toronto Star, saw the outcome this way: "In fact, Canadian voters delivered a rebuke to all parties — denying the Liberals a majority; denying the Conservative leader his own seat, never mind the chance to form a government as his strategists had believed was possible; reducing the Quebec separatist party to a much smaller Bloc; depriving the NDP of official party status; and stripping the Greens down to a lone seat in Parliament."
"Mark Carney, whom British readers will remember from his stint running the Bank of England, is the model of a modern central banker: competent, conventional and colourless, more likely to be popular at Davos than in retail politics, writes Archie Bland and Leyland Cecco from Ottawa for The Guardian.
While the conventional wisdom for years has been that such figures are no longer viable political leaders, the specific circumstances in Canada this year have turned that analysis on its head. As he said himself in March: “I’m most useful in a crisis. I’m not that good in peacetime,” the duo wrote.
They also noted that Carney has promised to negotiate a new trade deal with the US, and has said he hopes to meet Trump in person soon – but that Canada has the leverage to wait until the time is right to do so. In the meantime, he wants to focus on lowering internal trade barriers and bolstering major investment projects, such as housing construction, to spur the economy.
