Canada’s prime minister-elect, Mark Carney, issued a strong statement on Sunday against the United States, vowing to win President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Carney wasted no time defending “the Canadian way of life” after the Liberal Party decisively elected him to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We didn’t ask for this fight. But Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” Carney told a boisterous crowd of party supporters in Ottawa.
“So the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win,” added the 59-year-old, who will take over from Trudeau in the coming days.
In his victory speech, Carney warned that the US under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country,” he said.
“These are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.”
He accused the US president of “attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses,” adding, “We cannot let him succeed.”
“We’re all being called to stand up for each other and for the Canadian way of life.”
Carney, who formerly commanded both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, easily defeated his primary competitor, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who held numerous top cabinet roles in the Liberal government that was elected in 2015.
Carney received 85.9 percent of the vote, while Freeland received only 8%.
Carney campaigned on a promise to oppose Trump, who has threatened to annex Canada and disrupted bilateral trade with unpredictable tariffs since taking office.
Carney opined that his experience makes him the ideal counter to the US president.
He has portrayed himself as a renowned economic crisis manager who led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote.
Delivering a farewell address, Trudeau said, “Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge.”
Celebrating the outcome of the election in Ottawa, party loyalist Cory Stevenson said, “The Liberal party has the wind in its sails.”
“We chose the person who could best face off against (Tory leader) Pierre Poilievre in the next election and deal with Donald Trump,” he told AFP.
