Carney reportedly saw the Bank of England position as a stepping stone for his political ambitions in Canada when Trudeau stood down.

After months of speculation, Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor, has announced he will run to succeed Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party in Canada.

Canada-born Carney was governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He was appointed by the former chancellor George Osborne. During his tenure, he oversaw big changes at the Bank, which was given more power in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. Carney was also a pro-EU figure, who became known for failing to persuade Britons not to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Pro-Brexit figures said he should have been sacked for warning about the economic dangers of leaving the EU prior to the vote.

But he was successful in helping to prevent a hard Brexit with no deal which had been pushed for by a number of the hard-line Eurosceptics in the Tory party.

In 2023, he said Brexit was to blame for soaring inflation driving the cost of living crisis in Britain, and that he took no pleasure in being proven right because the hardship had been placed on the backs of millions of ordinary people.

“We laid out in advance of Brexit that this will be a negative supply shock for a period of time and the consequence of that will be a weaker pound, higher inflation and weaker growth,” Carney said.

Now, the economist, who holds British and Irish as well as Canadian citizenship, hopes to be the person who can step in and prevent populists from taking control in Canada.

Despite his strained relationship with Boris Johnson over Brexit, Carney was appointed as an adviser by the former prime minister when he finished at the Bank of England.

A year before Labour won the election, he was unveiled as an adviser to Rachel Reeves.

It is understood that he saw the Bank of England position as a stepping stone for his political ambitions in Canada when Trudeau stood down.

Justin Trudeau decided to step down as prime minister earlier this month, citing turmoil in his party over how to deal with the looming prospect of US trade tariffs under Donald Trump.

Canada’s Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, has hopes to become PM. He has laid out a low-tax, small government vision for the country, saying:

“A dollar left in the hands of consumers and investors is more productive than a dollar spent by a politician,” he stated.

Poilievre’s Conservatives have enjoyed a large lead over the struggling Liberals in national surveys in recent months, suggesting they could win a majority government in an imminent election.

With Justin Trudeau standing down, an election is likely to be called soon.

Poilievre has promised a return to “common sense politics.” With fans including Elon Musk, a win would make him part of a wave of populist leaders on the right who have toppled incumbent governments in the west.

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