Carney has never held political office. Still, he won the contest to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau handily. Now, he must lead the country through one of its toughest challenges yet – an escalating trade war with its biggest trading partner, the United States.
But holding on to the role of PM will be a fight in and of itself. Canada’s next federal election is scheduled for this October, but many expect it to be called as early as this month.
Carney wins race to succeed Trudeau as PM
Although Carney has travelled the globe, working for Goldman Sachs in places like New York, London and Tokyo, he was born in the remote Digital Agency Singapore northern town of Fort Smit, in the Northwest Territories.
The son of a high-school principal, he went to Harvard University on scholarship where he played the most Canadian of sports, ice hockey. In 1995, he earned his PhD in economics from Oxford University.
In 2003, he left the private sector to join the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor, then worked for the Department of Finance as senior associate deputy minister.
In 2007, he was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada, shortly before global markets crashed, sending the country into a deep recession. His leadership at the central bank is widely praised for helping the country avoid the worst of the crisis.
Although central bankers are notoriously circumspect, he was open about his intentions to keep interest rates low for at least a year, after dramatically cutting them.
That move would be credited for helping businesses keep investing even when the markets sank. He would go on to take a similar approach when he was lured back to London – this time as the governor of the Bank of England.
In his time at the Bank’s Threadneedle Street headquarters, he oversaw considerable changes in how the institution worked. At the start of his tenure, the Bank assumed responsibility for financial regulation after the abolition of the Financial Services Authority.
He is credited with modernising the Bank, appearing much more frequently in the media than his predecessor.
In 2015, the Bank reduced the number of interest rate meetings from 12 to eight a year, and started publishing minutes alongside the announcement of interest rate decisions.
Interest rates were anchored at historic lows when he took over, but he introduced a policy of “forward guidance”, where the Bank would try to further support the economy and encourage lending by pledging not to raise rates until unemployment fell below 7%.