When Canadians vote in parliamentary elections on April 28, they will essentially be choosing between two starkly different candidates to lead their country through a crisis brought on by President Trump’s tariffs and festering economic and social issues.
Mark Carney, 60, the Liberal Party leader who has been serving as prime minister since early March, is a political novice. He has had a long career in central banking and global finance.
Pierre Poilievre, 45, the Conservative Party leader, has been a politician for most of his adult life and is well known to voters, having meticulously curated his agenda, talking points and image.
Two other candidates are vying to maintain their parties’ representation in Parliament: Jagmeet Singh of the New Democrats, a leftist party that has focused much of its campaign on health care, and Yves-François Blanchet of the Bloc Québécois, which runs candidates only in Quebec. But Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Carney are widely acknowledged to be the only two who can gain enough support to become prime minister.
Mark Carney: The Banker
Mr. Carney is a former central banker who made his first foray into politics by winning the support of Liberal Party members to replace Justin Trudeau as the party’s leader last month.
In succeeding Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Carney became prime minister, in line with Canada’s parliamentary system. He has distinguished himself as a monetary policy-making and finance executive and is at ease in the high-power circles of the World Economic Forum at Davos.
His supporters mention this background as evidence of his deal-making competence and ability to move around power and money with ease; his critics cite the very same attributes as proof that he’s an out-of-touch elitist.
In the general election, he is running for a parliamentary seat in a middle-class neighborhood in Ottawa.
Mr. Carney was born in Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories, and grew up playing hockey in Edmonton, Alberta. His parents were teachers. He is married to a British economist, Diana Fox Carney, and has four children. He was educated at Harvard and Oxford.
Framing his lack of experience in politics as an asset, Mr. Carney has presented himself as an outsider with a long record of public service and private-sector chops that make him the best person to stand up to Mr. Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, and steady the country through economic tumult.
After a 13-year career in Goldman Sachs offices around the world, Mr. Carney moved to Ottawa to serve in the senior ranks of Canada’s finance department, and then as governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until 2013. In that role, he helped Canada avoid a financial crisis as the U.S. banking system melted down.
Mr. Carney led the Bank of England from 2013 until 2020, and tried to steady the British economy through Brexit.
He recently served as an adviser to Mr. Trudeau, a fact his detractors cite as evidence he is just Mr. Trudeau by another name.
Mr. Carney tends to speak deliberately and can come across as stiff or professorial. The rare interviews he has agreed to, including one last week with the Canadian cultural icon Nardwuar, have shown a lighter side.
Pierre Poilievre: The Politician
Mr. Poilievre has been involved in Conservative politics for two decades. At 24, he was Canada’s youngest member of Parliament in 2004, eventually becoming a cabinet minister under Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister who preceded Mr. Trudeau.
He has earned a reputation as a potent attack-dog politician on the party’s right who doesn’t shy from a fight and uses his sharp rhetoric and a disciplined performance to drill in his point.
As Conservative leader over the past three years, he has made his mark with three-word slogans, harvesting Canadians’ grievances with the stewardship of the country under Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal Party.
Like Mr. Carney, Mr. Poilievre grew up in Alberta and was raised by teachers, who adopted him from his mother, who had given birth to him at 16.
Mr. Poilievre’s wife, Anaida Poilievre, and their two young children have been prominent on the campaign trail, which has focused on crime deterrence, unaffordable living costs and buttressing Canada’s security, with promises to cut taxes and shrink government.
Up until January, Mr. Poilievre was considered a shoo-in to lead the Conservatives to victory in the federal elections and become the next prime minister. But things turned rapidly against him after Mr. Trudeau resigned, allowing Mr. Carney to appear as the shiny new face of the beleaguered Liberal Party.
And then came Mr. Trump’s election and his attacks on Canada’s sovereignty and economy.
Opinion research shows Mr. Poilievre has been harmed by comparisons to the American president. The two share a few pet sets of opinions — dislike for mainstream news media and big government, and support for cryptocurrencies and oil drilling. But what has mostly driven the comparisons has been Mr. Poilievre’s occasional use of harsh, pointed language.
Mr. Poilievre has been credited with “professionalizing” the Conservatives by formalizing the use of political consultants and voter-profiling methods, along with helping the party reach all-time fund-raising highs.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
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