Who is Mark Carney, the crisis-handling former central bank governor turned Canada’s next leader?

Canada’s next leader is a relative political newcomer, coming instead from a decades-long career in finance where he steered governments through major global crises and periods of upheaval – experience he’s hoping to now leverage as he prepares to take over from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada’s next leader is a relative political newcomer, coming instead from a decades-long career in finance where he steered governments through major global crises and periods of upheaval — experience he’s hoping to now leverage as he prepares to take over from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It’s an unorthodox background that could also potentially stand Mark Carney in good stead as Canada seeks to counter a looming economic confrontation with its giant southern neighbor - US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Carney was elected Sunday to lead Canada’s Liberal Party into the next federal elections later this year. While he has never run for elected office before, rumors have swirled for years about if — and when — he might foray into politics. The Liberals have been courting Carney for more than a decade, and Carney advised Trudeau on Canada’s economic recovery from COVID-19. But the banker-turned-politician did not make his official entrance until Trudeau announced his resignation in January. All of his competitors were sitting politicians: Carney is in the unusual situation of becoming Canada’s Prime Minister without holding a seat in Parliament. But before all that, he was born in Fort Smith, the Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. His parents were both teachers, and — true to his Canadian roots — he played ice hockey as a goalie growing up, according to his campaign website. He then headed to the United States for a degree in economics at Harvard University, before pursuing a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Oxford University.