Mark Carney

Biography

Mark Joseph Carney was born on 16 March 1965 in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and grew up in Edmonton. He won a scholarship to Harvard University, graduating in economics in 1988, and went on to the University of Oxford, where he completed a master's degree and, in 1995, a doctorate in economics. He married Diana Fox, a British economist, in 1994; they have four daughters.

Carney spent thirteen years at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, working in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto. He joined the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor in 2003 and moved to the federal Department of Finance in 2004 as senior associate deputy minister. In February 2008 he became Governor of the Bank of Canada, and he guided monetary policy through the global financial crisis, cutting interest rates sharply and signalling how long they would stay low. From 2011 to 2018 he also chaired the international Financial Stability Board.

In July 2013 Carney became Governor of the Bank of England, the first person from outside the United Kingdom to hold the post. His term covered the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union and its aftermath, and he spoke often about the financial risks of climate change. After leaving the Bank in March 2020 he served as the United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance, co-founded the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, became a vice-chair at Brookfield Asset Management and chaired the board of Bloomberg L.P.

Carney had long been mentioned as a possible Liberal candidate, and in 2024 he chaired a Liberal Party task force on economic growth. After Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in January 2025, Carney entered the leadership race and won on 9 March 2025 with about 86 per cent of the vote. He was sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister on 14 March 2025, before he held a seat in the House of Commons. He named a smaller cabinet and, in his first days, ended the consumer carbon price and cancelled a planned increase in the capital gains inclusion rate.

His government took office as the United States imposed tariffs on Canadian goods and its president spoke of Canada becoming an American state. Carney responded with counter-tariffs and made the relationship with the United States and the strength of the Canadian economy the centre of his agenda. On 23 March 2025 he asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament.

In the general election of 28 April 2025 the Liberals won 169 seats, a few short of a majority, giving the party a fourth consecutive Liberal mandate. Carney was elected in the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean. King Charles III opened the new Parliament with the Speech from the Throne on 27 May 2025, the first time a sovereign had done so since 1977.

In June 2025 Carney hosted the G7 leaders' summit at Kananaskis, Alberta. Parliament passed the One Canadian Economy Act, which aimed to remove federal barriers to trade and labour mobility between provinces and to speed approval of projects designated as being in the national interest. His government also lowered the lowest federal income tax rate, committed to meet the NATO target of spending two per cent of gross domestic product on defence in 2025–26, and withdrew the digital services tax.