Liberals have elected their election-ready leader Mark Carney with a huge landslide win Sunday night and the newly elected Carney wasted no time delivering a rallying speech vowing to take on U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre with no-holds barred. The prime minister-designate said Canadians know that “new threats demand new ideas and a new plan.” “They know that new challenges demand new leadership. Canadians want positive leadership that will end division and help us build together,” Carney said. Carney vowed to keep Canada’s tariffs until the Americans “show us respect,” and said while this country didn’t ask for this fight, Canadians “are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.”
By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files
TORONTO – Liberals have elected their election-ready leader Mark Carney with a huge landslide win Sunday night and the newly elected Carney wasted no time delivering a rallying speech vowing to take on U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre with no-holds barred.
The prime minister-designate said Canadians know that “new threats demand new ideas and a new plan.”
“They know that new challenges demand new leadership. Canadians want positive leadership that will end division and help us build together,” Carney said. Carney vowed to keep Canada’s tariffs until the Americans “show us respect,” and said while this country didn’t ask for this fight, Canadians “are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.”
“Donald Trump thinks he can weaken us with his plan to divide and conquer. Pierre Poilievre’s plan will leave us divided and ready to be conquered,” he said. Carney has never held elected office and currently is not a member of Parliament.
Carney won easily and decisively on the first ballot with 85.9 per cent of the vote, in a race that was set in motion earlier this year when very unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to resign.
After maintaining frontrunner status throughout the two-month race, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor will become this country’s next, and 24th prime minister within days.
Liberal Party President Sachit Mehra read out the final first ballot numbers which had Carney beat out former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who came a distant second with eight per cent support.
Carney also beat out former cabinet minister Karina Gould who placed third, and businessman and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis, who came fourth. Both received around three per cent of the vote.
Before the results were revealed, each candidate thanked supporters for injecting new energy into the party, which Carney will now be looking to capitalize on.
Ultimately 151,899 party loyalists cast a ballot in this race. The vast majority – 131,674 voters – decided Carney was the leader they wanted to steer them and the rest of the country through the unpredictable waters of an on-again, off-again trade war with Canada’s closest ally.
He will also be the one carrying the party’s banner in the likely imminent federal election – which polls show to be an increasingly narrowing race with the Conservatives – under a new “Canada strong” slogan.
With Files from CTV News
