Ottawa: Canada’s Liberal Party has elected a financial expert, Mark Carney, to guide the nation through the showdown with US President Donald Trump.
He received a landslide victory on Sunday in the bid to succeed embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and hold the office till the elections due later this year.
Throwing Trump a challenge, he said after his election, “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves”.
Uniquely, he has been the governor of both the British and Canadian central banks giving him the credentials to lead the nation through the crisis sparked by Trump’s tariffs, although he is a political novice without ever holding an elected office.
“America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form”, Carney declared.
In speeches and social media posts, Trump has called Canada as the “51st state” of the US and its prime minister as a “governor”.
He has imposed 25 tariffs on Canada’s exports to the US in a bid to make it bend to his will, although he has paused some of them.
Carney said, “The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country”.
Using a sports motif, he taunted Trump, “So Americans should make no mistake: In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win”.
It was a reference to Canada defeating the US last month in the “4 Nations Faceoff”, an international ice hockey tournament.
Carney, who supports retaliatory tariffs against the US said, “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect”.
He also hinted that Canada would use its electricity supply to the US as a bargaining chip.
Trudeau has led the Liberal Party for 13 years and served as prime minister for nearly ten years.
He agreed in January to step down in the face of mounting opposition within his own party as his standings slid in polls, threatening to drag down the Liberals in the oncoming election.
His prime ministership was marred by his antagonism toward India and an undercurrent of sympathy for Khalistanis as well as his acerbic style that contributed to the confrontation with Trump.
Carney, not having held elected office and having the economic crisis with the US as the top priority, will not have the same need for Khalistani support.
Dealing with the economic crisis is not new for Carney, who as the governor of the Bank of England, helped steer Britain through the Brexit.
Former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who broke with Trudeau when he took away the finance portfolio and left the government, was Carney’s closest challenger.
Carney swept the party poll with 85.9 per cent of the votes.
Around the time Trudeau announced his reluctant plan to quit, the opposition Conservative Party had a big lead in polls over the Liberal Party. But the lead has shrunk during the faceoff with Trump, and a CTV-Nanos poll released last week showed the Liberals behind by just two points, with Trump as the top area of concern for voters.
Carney is not a member of parliament, having been hastily appointed finance minister by Trudeau.This would require him to call national elections soon.
(IANS)
