86 Facts About Mark Carney

Mark Joseph Carney was born on March 16,1965 and is a Canadian politician and economist who is the 24th and current prime minister of Canada.

Mark Carney was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta.

Mark Carney graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1987, then studied at the University of Oxford, where he earned a master's degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1995.

Mark Carney held various roles at Goldman Sachs before joining the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor in 2003.

Mark Carney served as the eighth governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and was responsible for Canadian monetary policy during the 2008 financial crisis.

Mark Carney worked as one of many informal advisors to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the COVID-19 pandemic and was made chair of the Liberal Party's economic growth taskforce in September 2024.

Shortly after winning the Liberal Party leadership election and becoming prime minister, Mark Carney advised the governor general to dissolve Parliament and trigger a federal election.

Mark Joseph Carney was born on March 16,1965 at St Ann's General Hospital in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and was raised in Edmonton, Alberta.

Mark Carney has three siblings: an older brother and sister, Sean and Brenda, and a younger brother, Brian.

When Mark Carney was six, his family moved to Edmonton, Alberta.

Mark Carney is the son of Verlie Margaret, a stay-at-home mother, and Robert James Martin Carney, a high school principal and Professor of Educational Foundations at the University of Alberta.

Mark Carney's father was the Liberal candidate for Edmonton South in the 1980 Canadian federal election, placing second.

Mark Carney's mother returned to university to pursue a career in education when Carney was ten.

Mark Carney graduated in the class of 1983 from St Francis Xavier High School, Edmonton, Alberta.

Mark Carney spent thirteen years at Goldman Sachs and worked in their Boston, London, New York City, Tokyo, and Toronto offices.

Mark Carney worked on South Africa's post-apartheid venture into international bond markets, and was involved in Goldman's work with the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

In 2003, Mark Carney left Goldman Sachs to join the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor.

From November 2004 to October 2007, Mark Carney was the senior associate deputy minister and G7 deputy in the Department of Finance Canada.

Mark Carney served under two finance ministers: Ralph Goodale, a Liberal; and Jim Flaherty, a Conservative.

Mark Carney was the lead on the federal government's profitable sale of its 19 per cent stake in Petro-Canada.

In October 2007, Mark Carney was appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Mark Carney immediately left his position at the Department of Finance to become an advisor to the outgoing governor, David Dodge, before formally assuming Dodge's position on February 1,2008.

Mark Carney was selected over Paul Jenkins, the senior deputy governor, who had been considered the front-runner to succeed Dodge.

Mark Carney took on this role at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis.

At the time of his appointment, Mark Carney was the youngest central bank governor among the G8 and G20 nations.

Mark Carney stated low-interest rates were not to blame but the onus was on individuals who take out the loans, the banks, and the federal government's mortgage lending rules.

Mark Carney earned various accolades for his leadership during the 2008 financial crisis: he was named one of Financial Timess "Fifty who will frame the way forward" and of Time Magazines 2010 Time 100.

In October 2012, Mark Carney was named "Central Bank Governor of the Year 2012" by the editors of Euromoney magazine.

Mark Carney was chairman of the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on the Global Financial System from July 2010 until January 2012.

Mark Carney was a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of leading financiers and academics, and of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.

Mark Carney attended the annual meetings of the Bilderberg Group in 2011,2012 and 2019.

On November 4,2011, Mark Carney was named chairman of the Basel-based Financial Stability Board, which coordinates international financial regulatory authorities.

At his first press conference as Chairman of the FSB in January 2012, Mark Carney laid out his key priorities for the board.

Mark Carney's term ended in 2018, while he was in his next post at the Bank of England.

Mark Carney succeeded Sir Mervyn King on July 1,2013.

Mark Carney was the first non-Briton to be appointed to the role since the Bank of England was established in 1694.

Mark Carney has been quoted as saying that Haldane does not have a "proper understanding of the facts" on bank regulation.

Shortly before Mark Carney took up the post, the Bank of England took up financial regulation duties from the Financial Services Authority.

In May 2014, Carney warned the UK's heated housing market was the biggest risk to financial stability, and he was considering providing advice on the Help to Buy mortgage scheme, which some believed was contributing to housing inflation.

Mark Carney stated UK housing prices and the lack of affordability of housing in the United Kingdom was due to limited supply, and noted twice as many homes were built in Canada than in the UK, although Canada had half the population.

Mark Carney assured the public the Bank was monitoring rising property prices and large-value mortgages to avoid debt overhang destabilizing the economy.

In 2014, Mark Carney warned that if the Scottish independence referendum was successful, the new country would likely not be able to continue using the pound sterling without ceding some powers to the UK.

In 2015, Mark Carney changed the number of yearly interest rate meetings from 12 to eight and ordered minutes to be published during the announcements.

Mark Carney further agreed to an additional seven months in September 2018, to "support a smooth exit" from the EU, and to a further two months for an orderly transition to his successor, Andrew Bailey.

In 2020, Mark Carney served as one of many informal advisors to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, advising him on the government's COVID-19 economic response.

Mark Carney reportedly advised Trudeau on Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Trudeau looking to Mark Carney to help Canada get out of its recession.

In October 2020, Mark Carney was vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management, where he led the firm's environmental, social and governance and impact fund investment strategy.

In February 2021, Mark Carney retracted an earlier claim that the billion Brookfield Asset Management portfolio was carbon neutral.

Mark Carney had based his claim on the fact that Brookfield has a large renewable energy portfolio and "all the avoided emissions that come with that".

The Times article cited Carney saying London would likely host the "new pilot market for voluntary carbon offsets" that could be "set up" by December 2021.

In February 2021, Mark Carney joined the board of fintech company Stripe.

Mark Carney helped launch the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021.

From 2022 to January 2025, Mark Carney has been an advisor to Watershed, a climate tech company founded by Stripe alumni that proposes to be "the platform companies need to succeed in the climate economy".

In September 2024, Mark Carney became a special adviser and chair of the Liberal task force on economic growth.

Mark Carney did not need to follow standard ethical disclosures mandatory for prime ministerial advisors because he was employed by the Liberal Party rather than the Prime Minister's Office.

Mark Carney was approached by the Liberal Party to run for leader in their 2013 leadership election.

In 2021, Mark Carney spoke at the Liberal Party policy convention, declaring his support of the party but stopping short of pledging to run under its banner.

Mark Carney endorsed Catherine McKenney's candidacy for mayor of Ottawa in the 2022 mayoral election.

On September 9,2024, Mark Carney was named by Justin Trudeau to chair the Liberal Party of Canada's leader's Task Force on Economic Growth.

Mark Carney's name was briefly mentioned upon the resignation of Chrystia Freeland as a possible candidate for finance minister in Trudeau's ministry.

On January 16,2025, Mark Carney officially announced that he was running in the 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election.

Mark Carney announced that he stepped down from all executive, board and advisory positions that he was part of in order to focus on his leadership campaign.

On March 14,2025, five days after winning the leadership election, Mark Carney was sworn in as the 24th prime minister of Canada, along with the 30th Canadian Ministry.

Mark Carney is the second prime minister to have earned a PhD, after William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Mark Carney was widely expected to call a federal parliamentary election for late April or early May 2025, ahead of the required election date in October.

Mark Carney has been described as centrist and technocratic, and ideologically characterized as a Blue Liberal, being fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

Mark Carney proposed to undo the Trudeau government's capital gains tax increase and promised to implement a middle class tax cut and a new approach to federal budgeting that would save tax-payers money if appointed as prime minister.

Mark Carney warned many times that Brexit was expected to negatively influence the UK economy.

Mark Carney replied that he felt it was his duty to speak up on such issues.

In September 2018, Philip Hammond, the chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed speculation that Mark Carney would remain as Governor until January 2020, in order to ensure a "smooth" transition after the UK was set to leave the EU on March 29,2019, a departure deadline that was missed.

In November 2018, Mark Carney warned that large parts of the British economy were not ready for a no-deal Brexit.

In February 2019, speaking about the global economy, Mark Carney provided a less negative perspective on Brexit, stating that globalization has resulted in "imbalances of democracy and sovereignty", and that Brexit "is the first test of a new global order and could prove the acid test of whether a way can be found to broaden the benefits of openness while enhancing democratic accountability".

Mark Carney was appointed as a United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change in 2019.

In March 2021, Mark Carney stated that in Canada there is a "huge economic opportunity" in the transition to a sustainable economy with reduced carbon emissions.

Mark Carney says that it is time to listen to scientists that have long been warning about the risks posed by climate change.

Mark Carney promised to introduce a "carbon border-adjustment" to penalize high-polluting foreign imports.

Mark Carney argued that it should be easier for a homebuilder to densify by eliminating unit maxima, abolishing parking minima and allowing taller buildings and more density near transit lines.

Mark Carney published the book Value Building a Better World for All in 2021.

Mark Carney met British economist Diana Fox, who is active in various environmental and social justice causes, while studying at the University of Oxford.

Mark Carney's brother-in-law is the 3rd Baron Rotherwick, to whom his wife's sister is married.

Mark Carney is godfather to the son of fellow politician Chrystia Freeland, who nevertheless ran against him in the 2025 Liberal Party leadership election.

Mark Carney is a Catholic, and was named the most influential Catholic in Britain by The Tablet in 2015.

Mark Carney speaks French but has described his proficiency as "far from perfect".

Mark Carney has distant relatives in Liverpool and is a supporter of the city's football team Everton FC, though his wife supports Arsenal FC.

Mark Carney is a supporter of the Edmonton Oilers and the Edmonton Elks.

Mark Carney completed the 2015 London Marathon in 3 hours, 31 minutes, and 22 seconds, marking a 17-minute improvement on his time at the 2011 Ottawa Marathon.