From Fort Smith to global finance and back, Carney’s not your usual politician

OTTAWA — Even when Mark Carney was still in high school, his friends bugged him about whether he would become prime minister one day.

His answer was one fit for a future politician: to never confirm nor deny.

Carney, a devout Roman Catholic who hails from Fort Smith, N.W.T. and turns 60 next week, cleared his first major political test on Sunday, winning the Liberal leadership by wowing party faithful.

The globe-trotting, two-time central banker who navigated the Canada and UK economies during times of crisis comes otherwise untested at the ballot box and will become Canada’s next prime minister over the coming days.

The only practical experience he has in the political arena — aside from many years of allowing speculation to build up that he might launch a bid to lead the party — he gleaned during the past two months of an unusually short leadership race called to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Carney’s campaign would not make him available for an interview with The Canadian Press at any point during the race, despite multiple requests.

His friends say it’s his other qualities, not his political acumen — his core liberal values, his sterling resume, strategic mind and witty banter — that make him catnip to Liberals.

Carney’s days as bank governor earned him a reputation in Ottawa as a gruff but cerebral policy wonk.

Former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna vouches that he’s personable and witty behind the scenes.

“While you often see him and he looks quite serious, he’s quite a funny guy,” she said.

“It’s always hard because you see politicians in a very particular context. Sometimes that’s standing behind a podium and those are artificial situations. He’s a real person, he’s smart and he cares greatly about Canada.”

One such moment, where he broke through the stodgy official Ottawa atmosphere 12 years ago, came as speculation swirled that he might run for Liberal leadership.

The then-Bank of Canada governor shrugged off the suggestion he might run to become an MP.

“Why don’t I become a circus clown?” he joked.

McKenna and Carney have kids around the same age and have been friends for more than a decade. At one point, their friend group decided they needed to become more adventurous, so they challenged each other to come up with ideas and went whitewater kayaking in the Ottawa River and spent time learning how to curl.

“So, you have the bank governor curling and everyone’s just hanging out … curling or drinking beers and watching, having fun,” she said.

McKenna, who has seen him speak on the world stage about climate change and economic opportunity, has endorsed his candidacy even though Carney has pledged to reverse part of a capstone government policy she championed during her tenure in office: the consumer carbon price.

McKenna said that was “a tough pill” to swallow, but blames the opposition to the policy on Conservative politicians who whipped up anger over the policy and endorses Carney’s environmental plan as one that’s “well thought out.”

Carney has played up his past as a hockey goalie — once playing as a backup for Harvard — and his love of the Edmonton Oilers during the campaign, as he crafted his public image.

He once told CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos that he was just OK at the sport.

“I opened the gate for a lot of good hockey players,” he said in a 2011 interview.

“That speaks to Mark. He’s just a very humble guy,” said John Hecker, a longtime friend of Carney’s who went to Saint Francis Xavier high school with him in Edmonton, where they played soccer and basketball.

“Physical activity has been a big part of his life and I remember it’s gotten him — not in trouble, but his security detail in London wasn’t happy with him when he wanted to jog into work each morning rather than get picked up and dropped off.”

Carney was raised Catholic in Edmonton, Alta., where his father Bob Carney, a school teacher, ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate in Edmonton–South in 1980 against the Progressive Conservative incumbent Doug Roche.

Roche, now 96, appeared at Mark Carney’s campaign launch on Jan. 16 to get a sense of what he’s like working a crowd.

“He complimented me when I said that the best man didn’t win — meaning his father — and he said, ‘Oh yeah, the best man did win’, meaning me. It was a pleasant little thing, you know,” Roche said.

The former MP and senator has attended church with Carney in the past and thinks he has what it takes for federal political arena after watching the recent leadership debates — even though he described him as an “anti-politician” and a stark contrast to Trudeau’s persona.

“He’s not a showman. He has a certain technocratic manner to him. It may be that at this particular moment our country’s going through, partly in reaction to Trump and Trumpism, that this may be what people are looking for. He doesn’t come off as aggrandizing,” he said.

“He thinks in terms of social justice and speaks in terms of the boardroom.”

His decade-plus career in the financial sector took him all over the world, from New York to Tokyo, reportedly earning him millions at the investment bank Goldman Sachs at one point, although he has not disclosed his personal finances as his predecessor did during his party leadership run.

Carney spent a large chunk of his career as a public servant — eventually becoming the UK’s first non-British central bank governor.

It’s controversial for central bank governors to take roles in partisan politics, since the independent institutions must be seen to be above the political fray in their decision making or risk its credibility being undermined.

Now, his previously rosy record captaining Canada’s central bank through the economic crisis of 2008 is coming under increasing scrutiny, especially after former prime minister Stephen Harper cast doubt on it in a recent letter that appeared in Conservative fundraising emails.

Carney portrayed himself during the leadership race as a political outsider, although he does have many ties to ranking figures from Trudeau’s inner circle and prominent politicians across the country.

He co-captained the Oxford Blues hockey team with former justice minister David Lametti and is the godfather to the son of his main opponent in the leadership race, Chrystia Freeland.

He’s married to Diana Fox Carney, a climate and finance policy consultant at the Eurasia Group, where she works closely with Gerald Butts, a close friend and former top aide to Trudeau who donated to Carney’s campaign.

Carney’s political inexperience was put under the spotlight during the last stretch of his leadership run, when he denied that his role at his old firm Brookfield Asset Management overlapped with a final decision on moving its headquarters to New York.

The Opposition Conservatives quickly pounced on that, revealing a letter he signed just in December approving the move.

Carney now helms the Liberal party but does not currently hold a seat in Parliament.

His political mettle will be tested soon enough, with political Ottawa chattering about the next federal election likely to be just around the corner, and a call expected in the coming weeks after he’s sworn in as prime minister.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press