Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and now adviser to the Liberal Party, says he may consider running for public office at some point.
During an
interview with Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith on his “Uncommons” podcast released on Oct. 18, Carney was asked if he was going to “put your name on a ballot at some point.” Carney replied that he supports the Liberal Party because it has the “right combination of a social conscience and social priorities at its core.”
“And look, the opportunity may present itself,” he said. “This is what I can do right now, and I’m doing it to the best of my ability.”
Carney, who was governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020,
joined the Liberals as chair of a task force on economic growth in September 2024.
In that position, he has been reporting directly to Trudeau to provide advice on ways to achieve economic growth and productivity.
Carney’s addition to the party as an adviser
comes at a time that Trudeau is facing internal pressure by some caucus members to step down, and as Carney’s name has been mentioned as a possible replacement. Trudeau has repeatedly said he intends to lead the party in the next election.
In November 2023,
Carney said running for the Liberal leadership was a possibility, but was “not a decision that I need to take now.” That same month, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
referred to Carney as the “future leader” of the Liberals.
During the hour-long
conversation on Erskine-Smith’s podcast, Carney criticized the Conservatives and said they are using “simplistic slogans” while not understanding “what’s necessary to build this economy for Canadians.” The Tories, who have been surging in polls in recent months, have repeatedly referred to Carney as
“Carbon Tax Carney” in reference to his support of the carbon tax, and have made “axe the tax” a flagship slogan of their campaign.
Carney said at a Senate hearing in May that the carbon tax has “served a purpose up until now,” and said those who want to scrap it should come up with a “credible and predictable” alternative.
‘Sustainable Finance’
During the interview
, Carney spoke at length about his focus on “sustainable finance,” which he said involves getting “capital to solutions to address climate change.”
“Success in sustainable finance will be when we can drop the adjective, when this just becomes mainstream,” he said.
Erskine-Smith asked Carney about companies moving away from ESG, or environmental, social, and governance, commitments, if it impacts their “bottom line.”
ESG commitments include abiding by a set of standards in the investment decision-making process to measure sustainable and ethical impacts. In some cases, this has translated to companies staying away from providing capital to oil and gas projects.
In the United States,
attorneys general of around 20 Republican states have
challenged some major companies that enforce ESG commitments, saying they may be to the detriment of shareholders and clients, as well as the general public. The officials have expressed concern whether under these commitments, some financial institutions are, for example, withholding funding to energy and agriculture sectors that are important for the prosperity and security of the country.
Carney said in response to Erskine-Smith’s question that his work is focused on the environment part of the ESG. More specifically, he said, he works on a subset of the environment part which is focused on the “transition towards a low-carbon economy or net zero.”
He added that it is the “law of the land” in Canada to reach net-zero emissions.
Under the net-zero emissions law
passed in 2021, the government is committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“How we do that requires certain policies from government, and a number are being put in place. More will be required without question, but financial institutions and companies in Canada and elsewhere around the world react to those policies, and they react to the values of people,” he said.
“And a lot of the work that I’ve done in recent years has been around getting the market—shorthand value, value in the market, what’s priced—to be consistent with what people care about, what people value, the values in this case of Canadians around sustainability and the transition.”
‘Industrial Revolutions’
Carney also said in the interview that the world is currently undergoing two “industrial revolutions” of artificial intelligence and green energy at the same time. He said the two will bring significant transformations to Canada’s economy, and the government needs to prepare workers for new jobs in those industries and foster “inclusive growth” that supports all Canadians.Carney said that during previous industrial revolutions, many workers lost jobs and were slow to benefit from the introduction of new technologies and industries. While workers were eventually retrained and supported by new welfare systems, this happened “decades after the fact,” he said.
“I think we should benefit from that knowledge, that history, and do this in real time. And it therefore has to be part and parcel of the growth strategy,” he said.
During the interview, Carney said Canada needs to close its productivity gap with the United States by increasing investment and spending on software and tools for employees. Currently
chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, he warned
in a keynote address in April that Canada’s prosperity would be “severely compromised” if productivity did not increase.
Carney also told Erskine-Smith that the Liberals’ capital gains tax increase has been framed using “class warfare-type language” that seems to cast wealthier Canadians in a negative light.
The Liberals proposed increasing from one-half to two-thirds the taxable amount on capital gains above $250,000 for individuals as a way to promote “tax fairness for Canadians.”
