Presumptive Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney may soon be Canada’s next prime minister, but he has previously chosen to highlight his European identity and citizenship.
In a 2023 World Economic Forum panel discussion talking on the transition to a “green economy,” Carney identified himself as a European before talking about how the European Union and United States could dependably transition to a net-zero economy.
“As a European, I am a European actually. Yeah, an Irish citizen. Speaking as a European…” said Carney.
Carney talked about how the United States and European Union are reshoring their trade with countries who are politically and economically aligned, throwing Canada in as an honorary mention at the end of his answer.
“It is a real issue in determining how we build resilience across friends after all, and I would say that certainly the EU and the United States are friends. As are the Canadians, I’ll throw the Canadians in, I’m also Canadian,” said Carney.
While Carney is a native-born Canadian, the former central banker obtained Irish citizenship in his youth and became a British citizen in 2018 during his time as the governor of the Bank of England.
Carney spent just under seven years in London in that role and was later appointed by then-U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson as a finance advisor, working on the COP26 conference that Britain hosted in November 2021.
True North reached out to Carney for comment but did not receive a response.
In the past few decades, Canadian politicians seeking the premiership have received significant criticism for holding dual citizenship with another country.
During the 2011 general election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives attacked Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff for holding dual citizenship with the United States, publishing attack ads depicting Ignatieff calling himself an American.
The attacks against Ignatieff – an academic and author who had worked in the United States – worked to great effect, as the Conservatives managed to win a majority government and reduce the Liberals to only 34 seats and the third place party in the House of Commons.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer also faced significant scrutiny from critics for holding dual citizenship with the United States.
During the 2019 election campaign, Scheer was forced to promise to renounce his American citizenship, though he ultimately decided against doing so after failing to become prime minister.
