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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary
Mark Carney has been elected as the new Liberal Party leader in Canada with a commanding 85.9% of votes, following Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
The former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor will become Canada’s 24th prime minister within days.
In his victory speech, Carney took aim at both Donald Trump and Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, vowing to maintain Canada’s tariffs until Americans “show us respect.”
Carney, despite never holding elected office, enters leadership as Canada faces trade tensions with the U.S. and a potential early election. He must secure a parliamentary seat and finalize the transition with Trudeau.
It’s how parliamentary democracy works. The Prime Minister (PM) is elected by Members of Parliament (MPs) who are, in turn, directly elected by canadians. Typically, the Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party, but not always since a coalition of smaller parties could theoretically band together to elect their choice for PM. Carney was just elected leader of The Liberal Party of Canada, the largest party currently sitting in the Canadian lower house, by members of said party.
Our head of state and commander in chief is King Charles III, whose power is severely limited by constitutional and conventional traditions. Typically, in a parliamentary system, the head of state is merely a figurehead with no ability to influence policy directly.
Our Cabinet, unlike in the American Presidential system where cabinet members are unelected and appointed by the executive, are by convention chosen by the PM from amongst the directly elected MPs.
The PM can be forced to resign, alongside their Cabinet of Ministers, when a majority of MPs support a ‘motion/vote of no confidence.’ An election can be called at any time, with the maximum period between elections being 4 years.
This system of governance is shared with most Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential democracies with some minor differences.
Thanks for that summary. I think the big gap in my understanding is that the PM doesn’t even have to be an elected official. They essentially always are, but not having that codified is a surprise.
In my nightmare scenario, the cons eke out a majority, toss Pierre, and name Elon Musk as PM is Canada.
Look up Kim Campbell. Our only female Prime Minister.
One catch: members of the House of Commons have to be elected to have a seat on the floor where debates and voting happens, so until elected in a byelection or national, Carney will be watching from the gallery and directing someone to put out his opinions. It happens sometimes in Parliament. Much of his work will be in meetings anyway.
They can’t toss Pierre. He would have to step down (like Trudeau) or die. Then the party re-elects a new head who would become PM until an election is called or required as mentioned earlier, we will have an election no later than October this year.
It is definitely atypical for the PM not to be a sitting MP, but it is within the confines of the constitution. The PM only needs to be elected by and then maintain the confidence of parliament.
It’s almost certain that he will call an election immediately, however. A non sitting PM won’t maintain parliamentary confidence for long.
Or a Liberal MP in a safe seat will resign and Carney will stand in the subsequent by-election.
It’s the same way in the US for the house majority leader (not sure about senate)
The elected members could vote for anyone. If Musk wanted to be the house leader, they are so far up his ass it would probably happen.