‘Why don’t I become a circus clown?” That was Mark Carney’s sensible reply when asked in 2012 about ambitions to enter Canadian politics. On Sunday he was elected leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, soon to be sworn in as Prime Minister. Welcome to the circus.
Mr. Carney, a central banker who became a global face of “net-zero” and “ESG” environmental schemes, won 86% of the Liberal leadership vote. His big advantage: He was off in England, or globe-trotting as a United Nations climate envoy, or working for large U.S. firms rather than serving as a minister in Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government (2015-25).
