Sawt Falasteen - Canada ruling party elects Mark Carney as new leader, next PM

Carney, 59, won 85.9 percent of the ballots cast in the Liberal Party leadership vote, according to the final tally.

Carney will take over from outgoing party leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the coming days, but he may not have the job for long.

Canada must hold elections by October but Carney could well call a snap poll within weeks. Current polls put the opposition Conservatives as slight favourites.

In his victory speech to party supporters, Carney warned the United States under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada, an effort he said must be defeated.

"The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country," Carney told a boisterous crown in Ottawa after the results were announced.

Trump is "attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses. We cannot let him succeed."

Carney, who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau's former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, who has held several senior cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015.

Since entering the Liberal leadership race, Carney has maintained that he is best candidate to defend Canada against Trump's attacks.

The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.

Delivering a farewell address to party supporters at a hall in Ottawa before his successor was announced, Trudeau said "Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge."

- 'Most serious crisis' -

At the party meeting, Carney supporter Lozminda Longkines told AFP that Trump's repeated musings about making Canada the 51st US state were "a blessing in disguise."

"We are so united... We have a common enemy," the 71-year-old said before the results were announced.

Greg MacEachern, who declined to say who he supported, agreed the party would emerge from the vote tightly focused on Trump.

"This is a serious time, and I think people have taken this leadership race very, very seriously," said MacEachern, wearing a hockey jersey.

Carney has argued that he is the ideal counter to Trump's disruptions, reminding voters that he led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and steered the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote.

Data released from the Angus Reid polling firm on Wednesday shows Canadians see Carney as the favorite choice to face off against Trump, potentially offering the Liberals a boost over the opposition Conservatives.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they trusted Carney the most to deal with Trump, with 34 percent backing Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.

Before Trudeau announced his plans to resign in January, the Liberals were headed for an electoral wipeout, but the leadership change and Trump's influence have dramatically tightened the race.

"I think we were written off about four months ago, and now we're right back where we should be," former MP Frank Baylis, who also ran for the leadership, told AFP in Ottawa.

- Not a politician? -

Carney made a fortune as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before entering the Canadian civil service.

Since leaving the Bank of England in 2020, he has served as a United Nations envoy working to get the private sector to invest in climate-friendly technology and has held private sector roles.

He has never served in parliament nor held an elected public office.

Analysts say his untested campaign skills could prove a liability against a Conservative Party already running attack ads accusing Carney of shifting positions and misrepresenting his experience.

The 59-year-old has portrayed himself as a new voice untainted by Trudeau, who he has said did not devote enough attention to building Canada's economy.

In the coming days, Trudeau and Carney will visit Canada's Governor General Mary Simon -- King Charles III's official representative in Canada -- who will task the leader with forming a government.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST