Mark Carney Is Canada's Next Prime Minister

Amid a generational crisis in Canada’s relationship with the United States, particularly a trade war triggered by US President Donald Trump, the Liberal Party of Canada on Sunday chose an unelected technocrat with deep experience in financial markets - Mark Carney,  to replace Justin Trudeau as party leader and the country’s Prime Minister, and to take on President Trump.

Carney is expected to be sworn in sometime this week by the governor general of Canada, a representative in Canada of Britain's King Charles III.

The newly elected Liberal Party leader is expected to immediately call for an election as early as late April.

Justin Trudeau announced his intention to resign on Jan. 6. Under growing pressure from his own party, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will step down and end his nine-year stretch as leader. However, Trudeau said he would stay on in office until his Liberal Party can choose a new leader, and that Parliament would be prorogued - or suspended - until 24 March.

Trudeau's personal unpopularity with Canadians had become an increasing drag on his party's fortunes in advance of federal elections later this year.

Canada's Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau after party members voted in a nominating contest between four candidates.

The candidates for prime minister included Chrystia Freedman, Canada's longtime deputy prime minister who, until December, served as Trudeau's finance minister; Frank Baylis, a businessman and former member of the House of Commons; Karina Gould, a member of Parliment, who served in Trudeau's Cabinet as minister of International Development and minister of Democratic Institutions; and Mark Carney, an economist who served as Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

Heading into the vote, Carney, who has never held an elected office, had emerged as a front-runner.

Carney, who as Governor of the Bank of Canada, is credited with helping to guide the country through the worst of the 2008 financial crisis as Governor of the Bank of Canada. Carney has compared the comments of President Donald Trump, who has also threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, to a villain in the Harry Potter series.

In his acceptance speech, Carney addressed US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada and the threat Trump has posed towards the country, calling the current events the "greatest crisis of our lifetimes."

We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win," Carney said.

Indirectly addressing Trump's calls to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., Carney added, "America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form." Carney also criticised Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods and said he supports the retaliatory tariffs Canada has imposed on the U.S. "Donald Trump has put, as we know, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living, he's attacking Canadian workers, businesses and families... we cannot let him succeed and we won't," Carney said. "My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect."

Trudeau, who was first elected prime minister in November 2015, announced on Jan. 6 his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader and prime minister once a new party leader is determined through what he said would be "a robust, nationwide, competitive process."

Support for Trudeau's party has declined steadily for months, with the Liberals falling in early January to their lowest level of support in years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In recent days, Trudeau has emerged as the face of Canada in a trade war that erupted with the United States over 25 per cent tariffs that Trump imposed on products from Canada.

Canada countered by imposing a 25 per cent tariff on goods from the US, including orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles, and certain pulp and paper products.

Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said a second wave of retaliatory tariffs would be suspended after Trump announced on Thursday that he is pausing for a month tariffs on some products from Canada and Mexico.

Trudeau's relationship with India too straigned of late. As recently as a few months ago, it had gone to a level where both countries had to expell each other's top diplomats, as the rwo intensified over last year's assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canada-based Sikh leader labelled a terrorist by India, and subsequent claim of Trudeau that Canadian police were investigating allegations of Indian agents’ - and the Indian government's - direct involvement in the June 2023 killing.

Canadian police further accused Indian agents of involvement in “homicides, extortion and violent acts” targeting pro-Khalistan supporters advocating a separate Sikh homeland in India. in India. Delhi rejected the allegations as "preposterous".

There are some 770,000 Sikhs living in Canada, home to the largest Sikh diaspora outside the Indian State of Punjab. Sikh separatism - rooted in a bloody insurgency in India during the 1980s and early ’90s - continues to strain relations between the two countries. Canada has faced sharp criticism from Delhi for failing to oppose the pro-Khalistan movement within its borders. Canada, says India, is aware of local Khalistani groups and has been monitoring them for years.

This relationship has been on a downward trajectory for several years, but it's now hit rock bottom (with inputs from agencies).