Your World Tonight - Mark Carney wins Liberal Party leadership

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

After a six week race, the federal Liberal party chose Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as its new leader in a landslide vote. Carney will now replace Justin Trudeau after 10 years of serving as prime minister. You'll hear extensive coverage of the new Prime Minister designate, and what Canadians can expect - as a federal election looms.Plus: Violence in Syria, How U.S. tariffs affect Canada's energy industry, and more.

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This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Stephanie Scander night with one purpose, which is to build a stronger Canada for everyone. In the end, it wasn't even close. Mark Carney wins the Liberal leadership on the first ballot, will take it to the party's convention in Ottawa, and you'll hear what's next for the new Liberal leadership on the first ballot, will take it to the party's convention in Ottawa, and you'll hear what's next for the new Liberal leader and the challenges he faces as Prime Minister-designate.

Also on the podcast? There was an ambush on HTS forces and they have retaliated in the most aggressive way possible. More than 1,000 people are dead in Syria. The country's president is now calling for calm. The Liberal Party has made its choice loud and clear, picking Mark Carney to replace Justin Trudeau as its leader. After a six-week race, the former central banker won the competition in a landslide.

Let's bring in Tom Perry, who was at the Liberal Party convention. Tom, an extraordinary win here. What's the atmosphere like there? It was a pretty energetic atmosphere here at the Ottawa Convention Centre. In talking to Liberals before the vote was announced, I think that the mood is that, you know, they can't believe that they, I think that the mood is that, you know, they can't believe that they're even still in the race under a new leader. When you look back a few months when the conservatives were so far ahead, when the liberals just didn't have hope, they think now, well, they do have hope.

Since Justin Trudeau has stepped down and since, of course, Donald Trump has really changed the political landscape in America, but also leading into the federal election coming in Canada. So Mark Carney was always seen as the front runner, but when the votes were finally announced, I mean, he took over 130,000 votes. Christia Freeland, who placed second, got just over 11,000 votes. Frank Bayless and Karina Gould got about 4,700 and Bayliss got just over 4,000. So it was a complete rout by Carney.

Carney has, throughout this campaign, been telling liberals, I'm not a politician. Well, that's not the case anymore. In the coming days, he's going to be sworn in as prime minister. He's going to take the reins of government at what is really a fraught moment in Canadian history. The country's facing a trade war with the US. It's wildly mercurial President Donald Trump. Here's some of what he said to Liberal delegates. We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the

gloves. So the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win. Carney says that he's going to keep the reciprocal tariffs that Justin Trudeau and his government In trade as in hockey, Canada will win. Carney says that he's going to keep the reciprocal tariffs that Justin Trudeau and his government put in place. The new liberal leader also went after the man he'll soon face in a general election conservative leader, Pierre Polyaev, who he says can't give the same kind of fight to Donald Trump.

This was all about welcoming the new leader and whatever hockey analogies he wants to use, but it's also of course about saying goodbye to the outgoing leader. What was that like? It's really the end of an era because the Liberals did today pay tribute and said farewell to Justin Trudeau. You know, 10 years ago he led his party from third place in the House of Commons to a majority government and when you think about what he's faced since then, he's led Canada through more bad times than good. I mean, the pandemic, a war in Ukraine, a war in the Middle East, and the rise and the fall, and the return of Donald Trump. And so Trudeau today called on his successor, you know, to keep fighting for Canada.

Here's some of what the Prime Minister said. This is a nation-defining moment. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. It takes sacrifice. It takes hope and hard work. So that was Justin Trudeau addressing Liberal delegates. I'll just say one more thing in that we also heard today from former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien,

and he added his voice to those calling on Canada to stay strong in Canada's fight against Donald Trump and his tariffs. That was quite a remarkable speech too. We're gonna play a little bit of that a little later on in the show. Tom, thank you so much. Thank you. Tom Perry in Ottawa. Now we've got more from the convention floor. For her thoughts we were joined now by Catherine Cullen, host of CBC radio's The House. Catherine, 85.9 percent. This is huge. That's what Carney won on the first ballot. What does that huge number tell you? It's really remarkable and I will say bigger than I think even Carney's own team had expected. Bigger it is worth noting than Justin Trudeau got back in

2013 when he was named liberal leader. Then the third-place party he won with just over 80% of the vote. And in this case Carney was running against the former Deputy Prime Minister. She, Kristi Freeland, came into this race with a much higher public profile than him and she had a history of standing up to Donald Trump. So this means Mark Carney has a very united party behind him. He's not profile than him and she had a history of standing up to Donald Trump so this means Mark Carney has a very united party behind him he's not beholden to his competitors one observer said tonight this makes it clear this is Mark Carney's liberal party now he has a lot of latitude a lot of runway to make the

kind of choices he wants to make and of course a lot of challenges ahead too what do you think some of the biggest ones are? Yeah, well I mean really there's two audiences that Mark Kearney needs to think about right now. One, Donald Trump and the other Canadians as a whole. Let's start with the Canadians. Poll suggests Canadians are open to him, but Mark Kearney is going to face a lot of attacks from the Conservative Party who has been trying to paint him as dishonest. People are not necessarily so familiar with him even if they like what he's putting out in terms of his own resume. So he's really got to establish himself, make it clear that in his view he is the man for this moment and then he's got to show Canadians how he is going to stand up to Donald Trump. He's got to establish himself with the

United States president. You know there are new steel and aluminum tariffs that are expected to come into effect this week and they may happen the very same day that Mark Carney could be sworn in as Prime Minister. Let's go back to those conservative attacks because that party's been trying to define Mark Carney in the lead up to this already. So what are you watching for in this Carney-Polyev matchup? It's interesting because on the one hand you have Mark Carney with the resume, right? His argument having twice been a central banker during times of crisis. Someone who has spent a lot of this race saying, I'm not a politician and maybe that's not a bad thing.

Then you have Pierre Poliev, a lifelong politician, but somebody who has really honed the skill of political communication, right? He's really good at making really pointed attacks. Now Mark Kearney tonight tried to suggest that what Pierre Poliev was offering to Canadians was division. It was not something that Canada needed at this time, that his slogans weren't enough for the moment. In the face of that, he's going to have to deal with conservative attacks that are trying

to paint him as sneaky, trying to suggest that he's still an advocate for the consumer carbon tax, despite the fact that Mr. Carney says he's prepared to cancel it. This is likely to be a very tough federal election campaign that we expect to be in in a matter of days. The stakes are incredibly high for Canada in the face of these U.S. tariffs and you know they're high for Mark Carney as well. If he does not succeed here he will be the shortest serving Prime Minister in Canadian history. Catherine, a lot of change happening, an exciting time. Thank you so much. Thank you.

That's Catherine Cullen in Ottawa. Now you heard Catherine mention Mark Carney's resume, and the new Liberal leader is most well known for his banking career, from positions around the world to being the central banker for two countries. For a look at Mark Carney's life from his prairies upbringing to this leadership bid, here's the CBC's chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton. Mark Carney pitched himself as an outsider, not a politician but someone who would have the skills needed to meet the moment. No it's not the time for lifelong politicians such as Pierre Poliev. He was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, raised in Edmonton.

Both my parents were teachers. I wanted to be a hockey player. Carney studied economics abroad, earning a bachelor's degree from Harvard University before getting his master's and PhD from Oxford. For 13 years, he worked for global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. In 2008, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Carney to run the Bank of Canada, the second youngest bank governor ever. As a consequence, some of the world's largest financial institutions have recorded substantial losses.

Amid the global financial crisis, Carney called for widespread reforms to the world's financial system. The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, who also, double hats now, is the head of the International Financial Stability Board, so I did you be able to join us Mark? Working alongside Harper Conservatives, Carney was credited for how well Canada weathered the financial storm compared to other nations. Even named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010, the only central banker on the list alongside people people like U.S. President Barack Obama.

I've accepted this responsibility at the Bank of England at a decisive time, a time of great consequence for that economy. In 2013, Carney became the governor of the Bank of England, becoming the first ever foreigner to be named to that role. He later agreed to stay on at the helm for two extra years to help ease the Brexit transition. To promote both a smooth Brexit and an effective transition at the Bank of England. More recently, Carney worked for investment firm Brookfield Asset Management, served as the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action.

Two-thirds of carbon being priced by the end of the decade. For years, he supported a carbon tax, only carbon being priced by the end of the decade. For years he supported a carbon tax only to walk away from the policy at the start of the leadership race. Why don't I become a circus clown? For more than a decade, Carney toyed with the idea of running for the top job of the Liberal Party. I have gainful employment and I intend to intend to continue it. In 2020, Prime Minister Trudeau tapped Carney to serve as an informal advisor on the government's pandemic recovery plan. He immediately became a front-runner in the leadership race when Trudeau resigned earlier

this year. He has never held public office but Liberals bought his pitch. Now he will have to convince Canadians. Rosemary Barton, CBC News, Ottawa. So a Carney-Polyev face-off is coming and here's a little preview of what it will sound like. Sneaky Mark Carney is gonna try a pull a fast one on you. Hours before Carney even won the liberal leadership, the conservative leader was at a rally in London, Ontario, where he claimed that Carney is lying about his promise

to scrap the carbon tax. He's going to tell his environment minister to leave the carbon tax law in place, but just stop collecting it for a few months until the election is over. And then he'll bring in an even bigger shadow carbon tax. The new Liberal leader has said he will replace the carbon tax with an incentive program that rewards Canadians for making green choices. Meanwhile, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has congratulated

Carney in a social media post saying, quote, we will disagree on many ideas, but we should always stand united in protecting our country from the threat posed by Donald Trump. There is more chaos from Donald Trump coming that any new leader will have to deal with. Trump is now signaling he will go ahead with another round of tariffs. His next targets are steel and aluminum. But as Katie Simpson reports, Canadian leaders are once again preparing to push back. We've had a great almost six weeks now. Sitting down with a friendly Fox News host for an hour-long interview at the White House, the U.S. president defended his erratic trade decisions, including the pause on some tariffs targeting his biggest trading partners.

Because they wanted to help Mexico and Canada to a certain extent. We're a big, big country and they do a lot of their business with us, whereas in our case it's much less significant. Donald Trump dismissed concerns that his policies are hurting the stock market and when pushed repeatedly about complaints from business leaders who want clarity about tariffs, He too brushed that aside. You have a lot but we may go up with some tariffs. It depends. We may go up.

I don't think we'll go down but we may go up. And but you know they have plenty of clarity. They just use it. That's like almost a sound bite. They always say that we want clarity. Last week Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico but then ordered a month-long exemption for automakers and then another exemption for any goods that are compliant with the new North American free trade agreement. We launched a drug war, not a trade war,

and it was part of a negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders. National economic adviser Kevin Hassett falsely accused Canada of actively shipping fentanyl into America. Less than 1% of the drugs seized by authorities is smuggled into the U.S. across the Canadian border, numbers that have dropped even further in the past few months. Still, Trump administration officials continue to make cryptically broad demands of Canada. If Fentanyl ends, I think these will come off. But if Fentanyl does not end or he's uncertain about it, they will stay this way until he

is comfortable. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed Trump plans to go ahead with additional 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum starting Wednesday. I haven't given up that we can get to a position where we can avoid that but again we have to prepare for this unpredictability. Canada's finance minister Dominic LeBlanc has been negotiating with Lutnick warning him Canada will retaliate if new tariffs are imposed. Pushback from the provinces will ramp up this week as well. Ontario's Doug Ford is targeting three states with an energy surcharge. All of this setting the stage for an even bigger fight come April when the Trump administration

is set to impose larger, broader tariffs on all of its trading partners, including Canada. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. The trade war is changing discussions around developing clean energy projects. Researchers say now is the time for Canadians to focus on renewables. But as Sam Sampson reports, green energy providers say the tariffs make their products more expensive and less accessible. The crews with Boreal Connected Homes climb a ladder and park themselves atop a two-storey house just outside

of Edmonton. The glint from the sun bounces off their solar panel installation but a hazard is on the horizon for them. Potential U.S. tariffs are already leading to cancelled projects. Jordan Forsyth is the company's president. These are major purchases with long-term financing and that uncertainty creates risk for people. They don't want to spend money that they potentially might not have down the road. So that's been the main driver of problems for us with the tariffs. Whether they're on or off it makes no difference. He worries tariffs could impact funding for residential green renovations since many are subsidized through government grants and loans.

If things are not looking good that's something they could easily take off the table. And that's just on a small scale. Canada could face a 10% tariff on energy imports to the states, the country that buys the most Canadian crude oil. Recent polling shows two-thirds of people asked would support Energy East, an old cross-Canada pipeline plan that would get more oil to the coasts and sell to other countries. It's an idea that's catching on. Here's what Prime Minister Designate Mark Carney said during last month's French language debate.

Pretty simple really. A project like Energy East is possible. It's a fact. We think that that is a bit of a distraction at this moment in time. That's Chris Severson Baker, executive director of the Clean Energy Think Tank, the Pemina Institute. He says now is the time to capitalize on green infrastructure, like making hydro, solar and wind power easier to share between provinces. We need to be really pragmatic, really rational about what ideas make sense in the long run, given where the rest of the world is going in terms of reducing its emissions

and not following Trump down the path of, you know, drill baby drill and really trying to take the United States sort of backwards. The International Energy Agency suggests global oil demand could potentially peak within a decade. But those in the industry say the world will still rely on it for decades to come. Richard Masson is an executive fellow at the

University of Calgary School of Public Policy and a former CEO of the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission. And we've got to continue to steward and produce this resource because the world needs it and if we don't do it somebody else is going to do it and we'll miss out on all kinds of wealth. The people we spoke with say this will be a three-part federal election issue. How can Canada improve its energy security, stay true to its climate change commitments and make money? Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton.

Of course, Trump's trade war and threats on this country played into the Liberal Leadership Convention but speakers didn't let him spoil the celebration. In fact, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien says Canada might actually owe Donald Trump a thank you. From one old guy to another old guy. Stop this nonsense. In fact, we owe a debt of recognitions to Mr. Trump. He has united us as never before. So I want to say thank you to him and I think I will propose him for the Order of Canada.

You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. To other news now, and Israel is cutting off the flow of electricity to Gaza in a bid to pressure Hamas to release all remaining hostages. Gaza depends on electricity from Israel to run its desalination plants for making drinking water.

This move comes one week after Israel imposed a blockade on all goods entering Gaza. Meanwhile, talks on the second phase of the ceasefire are ongoing. Hamas said Saturday there are positive indicators for it to start. Israel is sending a delegation to Qatar on Monday to meet with mediators. Syria's leader is scrambling to contain an eruption of violence in his country. More than 1,000 people have been killed in recent days as forces affiliated with his government battle with fighters aligned with the former president Bashar al-Assad. And there are concerns that if the fighting isn't reigned in quickly,

it could further destabilize the region. Philipp Lee Shanok reports. In Martyrs Square in central Damascus protesters call for an end to revenge killing and violence against civilians. This man says unity and peace must prevail. We must build a free Syria, the new Syria, hand in hand he says. This after days of attacks against the minority Alawite sect in cities along Syria's Mediterranean coast. That is where remnants of former President Bashar al-Assad's forces are concentrated. Protester Saswan Badr says it is immoral to spill the blood of fellow Syrians.

The innocent people have nothing to do with it. Families, doctors, pharmacists died on the ground and they cannot bury their bodies, she says. This is forbidden. The Assad regime was overthrown last December after decades of family rule marked by authoritarianism and a long civil war. Interim Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharah says remnants of the former regime have no choice

but to surrender immediately or drag the country into another civil war. Leaving a mosque today, he says sectarian unrest is a challenge that is expected. We must maintain national unity and civil peace in the country as much as we can, he said. This latest round of killing started when Alawite gunmen ambushed forces of the new Syrian government. Sajjan Gohel is the international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation. And they have retaliated in the most aggressive way possible.

He says the violence has now spread to revenge and bloodletting by other groups and threatens to spiral out of control. It's a new regime with the same kind of challenges of sectarianism. ISIS still remains prevalent in Syria and they could exploit the situation. The foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon met in Jordan Sunday to discuss a plan for stability in the region. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says there was an agreement to aid Syria in the face of any threats from ISIS.

We have affirmed a unified position in the fight against terrorism, specifically the ISIS organization, he said, and we have agreed to launch a joint effort. He said the five nations agreed to form a joint combat and intelligence force to counter any attempted resurgence of the Islamic State in the region. Philby Shannok, CBC News, Toronto. Throughout this show, you've been hearing a lot about the new liberal leader. But the party also said goodbye to the outgoing one, Justin Trudeau. He gave his final speech as Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, a role he

has had since 2013. And Trudeau reflected on Canada's past and its present. Sixty years ago, standing atop Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson first raised our beautiful maple leaf into the Canadian sky. It was much debated at the time, but Pearson knew well what we all know now. That our flag would serve as a unifying symbol that would define the next chapters in our national story. Sixty years later, there are still so many more chapters to write.

And I can tell you, the world is looking to see what Canadians will do. And now Canadians are looking to see what Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney will do. You've been listening to Your World Tonight. I'm Stephanie Scanderis. Thank you for being with us. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.