IT WOULD BE WRONG to think that this was all inevitable. The Conservatives might try to make it sound that way. They might suggest, perhaps, that Mark Carney’s victory in the Liberal leadership race was, like Michael Ignatieff’s, simply a matter of being anointed. Indeed, Carney has flirted with the Liberal Party for a while. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed him last September as chair of the Liberal task force on economic growth. And Carney’s name has been floated publicly since at least late 2023 as a potential successor to Trudeau—including by Carney himself.

All that said, not too long ago, Carney wasn’t the frontrunner in this race. It was Chrystia Freeland. Her abrupt departure and resignation letter, in which she implied the prime minister was wasting time on “costly political gimmicks,” not only precipitated Trudeau’s resignation but also initially positioned her as a strong candidate to replace him. It probably wasn’t until Carney showed up on The Daily Show, affably chuckling with Jon Stewart, that people started to think he might just have the chops for this sort of thing.

But it was against Trump—or at least against Trump’s economic and, at times, geographic imperialism—that Carney looked strongest amongst his peers.