Mark Carney stood before a walnut-veneered lectern, his face drawn tight, as he announced that talks with Canada’s biggest trading partner had collapsed. We are keeping that promise.” For years, the former central bank governor had worked hard to calm markets. Now, he was asking Canadians to accept uncertainty and confrontation.
Near the end of the press conference last Saturday, a reporter made reference to the sombre, combative tone of the speech: “Why does it feel like today Mark Carney is going to war?” “We were attacked. You’re at war when you get attacked,” he said. But Carney has settled into the role he warned was necessary for the country, that of a wartime leader standing up to an erratic and vindictive adversary who seems hellbent on subjugating Canada.
After trade negotiations with the US broke down, the two sides traded recriminations and made good on threats to impose new tariffs on each other. In his latest act of petty antagonism, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the US federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”. But Carney, in walking away from the proposed deal, did what few other leaders have done: dared Trump and the US to test his nation’s resolve.
For those who have worked with the demanding – and, at times, temperamental – central banker, such a calculated refusal to accede to a bad deal comes as little surprise. Carney was raised in Canada’s western prairies, and his story – of an outsider gradually working his way into, and eventually reshaping, powerful institutions – offers clues to a man unwilling to accept the terms set by others. When trying to convince banks to .
But it has been no shock to see Carney standing up to Trump on the world stage. When he was handpicked as governor of the Bank of England in 2013 by the then UK chancellor, George Osborne, Carney’s hard-driving approach was not a natural fit with the venerable institution in London’s Square Mile. When he arrived, it still had pink-uniformed, top hatted guards at the entrance.
The traits acquired during his days at Goldman Sachs have continued into his tenure as prime minister. He remains an early riser, a dedicated runner and demands that ministers know their files front to back, according to those who work with him. Media have also reported that staff are expected to dress in formal business attire and documents are to be written using British spelling – to the frustration of Canadian linguists.
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