Mark Carney to launch Liberal leadership campaign today in Edmonton

The Front Bench panel weighs in on Mark Carney’s ‘outsider’ comments and if the next leader should be a Liberal insider.

After months of speculation about his political aspirations, Mark Carney is set to launch his Liberal leadership campaign in Edmonton this afternoon.

The former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor is making the announcement around 3 p.m. EDT.

Alberta MP George Chahal, who represents the riding of Calgary Skyview and supports Carney’s bid, will be there for the launch, according to a press release from his office.

“In an era of global challenges, in a time of economic opportunity, Mark Carney has the experience required and the leadership skills needed to meet those challenges and take advantage of the opportunities,” Chahal said in a statement.

Carney grew up in Edmonton where his father, Bob Carney, ran for the Liberals federally in 1980 in the riding of Edmonton-South, coming in second to Douglas Roche, a Progressive Conservative.

After months of lagging polling numbers and political pressure from within his own caucus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 that he would be resigning as Liberal party leader and prime minister once a replacement is found.

Carney calls himself ‘an outsider’ despite ties to Trudeau

In an interview Monday night on ‘The Daily Show’ in which he soft-launched his campaign, Carney described himself as an “outsider” despite his connections to the Trudeau government.

In 2020, Trudeau tapped the long-time economist as an “informal adviser” on the federal government’s pandemic recovery plan.

Meanwhile, last summer, Trudeau told reporters that he had been talking to Carney about joining federal politics and later in September, he appointed the former central banker to be a special economic adviser to the Liberal party.

And last month, a Liberal source told CTV News that Trudeau intended to replace former finance minister Chrystia Freeland with Carney. That decision to remove Freeland from the finance portfolio led to her sudden resignation on Dec. 16 – just hours prior to the delivery of the fall economic statement – and ultimately, Trudeau’s own resignation.

In a statement to CTV News on Tuesday, Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman called Carney “the furthest thing possible from an outsider.”

So far, backbench Liberal MPs Chandra Arya and Jaime Battise and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis have said they also intend to run.

Sources close to Freeland tell CTV News that she is set to announce her leadership run within the week, ahead of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, along with her first policy plank and dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Freeland told Liberals that she is “grateful for the chance to hear from you and listen to your ideas” and that she will “have much more to say very soon!”

Sources tell CTV News that Government House Leader Karina Gould is also planning to launch her bid this week.

Speaking to reporters following an event in Burlington on Tuesday, Gould said she’ll “have more to say in the coming days.”

The Liberal party is set to pick its next leader on March 9, with candidates obligated to declare their intention to run by Jan. 23.