Congratulations. You’re alive at a time when someone born in the Northwest Territories is set to become Canada’s prime minister.
Mark Carney has won the race to become the next federal Liberal leader, the party said on Sunday. He won in a landslide with nearly 86 percent of the party membership’s vote.
Barring something unforeseen occurring, Carney will be sworn in as the first prime minister born in the NWT.
More: Carney namedrops Fort Smith on Daily Show
He is expected to formally replace Justin Trudeau at the country’s helm in the days ahead. The precise timing of that transition was not immediately clear.
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In his opening speech after the results were delivered, Carney said the Liberals were “united and strong and ready to fight to build an even better country.”
He told the audience at the leadership convention, in Ottawa, he would build a stronger economy based on new relationships with “reliable” trading partners – a shot at the United States, which has spent recent weeks threatening and imposing a range of tariffs.
Referring to Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, he said his government would “keep tariffs on until Americans show us respect.”
Carney said he would “immediately eliminate” the carbon tax. He did not, in his speech, discuss what would replace it, though he has previously called for “incentives to reward people for greener choices.”
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Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, was born in Fort Smith in 1965. His father was a school principal in the town at the time.
He spent his first six years in the territory before he and his family relocated south to Edmonton. The extent to which those first six years qualify him as a northerner may be a matter of opinion.
How long Carney gets as Canada’s prime minister will also be a matter of opinion.
A federal election is expected in the extremely near future and has to happen by October, come what may. The new Carney-led Liberals will face a fierce test at the polls.
Recent polling data suggests Carney gives the party a boost nationally compared to any of the three people he defeated for the Liberal leadership. Chrystia Freeland (eight percent) finished second, Karina Gould (3.2 percent) third and Frank Baylis (three percent) fourth in Sunday’s results.
The Liberals have also significantly closed what was once a 20-plus percentage-point gap in polling behind the Conservatives, a shift that appears driven by Trudeau’s resignation and President Donald Trump’s moves against Canada.
Whether Carney can capitalize on that movement and turn it into any sort of victory at the polls remains to be seen. Analysts say Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives remain the favourites to form the next government.
At a rally in London, Ontario earlier on Sunday, Poilievre said Carney – as a Trudeau government economic advisor in recent months – had provided advice that “drove up taxes, housing costs and food prices while he personally profited from moving billions of dollars and thousands of jobs out of Canada to the US.”
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Liberals closer to revealing NWT candidate
In the NWT, the territory’s Liberals are understood to be on the cusp of announcing their own candidate for the next election.
The NDP has had Kelvin Kotchilea inked in as its NWT candidate for years, while the territory’s Conservatives selected Kimberly Fairman last summer.
The Liberals have said their chosen candidate cannot announce yet as it would affect their employment, which – officials said – the person is not in a position to lose for a lengthy period prior to an election being called.
That candidate was understood to be having their campaign photographs taken earlier this week, ready for the possibility of an election being triggered in the days ahead.
Incumbent Liberal MP Michael McLeod is stepping down after nearly 10 years as the territory’s parliamentary representative.
McLeod had endorsed Carney for the Liberal leadership, calling him the “right person for the job at exactly the right time.”
The prime minister previously born closest to the NWT was Joe Clark, who spent nine months in charge of Canada between 1979 and 1980.
Clark was born in High River, Alberta – which, being south of Calgary, is not especially close.
