Mark Carney was elected to a full term as Canada’s prime minister Monday with a campaign agenda focused squarely on pushing back on attacks from his counterpart to the South, President Donald Trump. Insofar as climate was a factor on the campaign trail, it was mainly about Carney ditching a key part of his predecessor’s signature carbon tax. But just by virtue of his resume as a leading voice on climate and finance he becomes a climate prime minister that the environmental movement can claim as its own.
The ascendance of Carney as a climate prime minister who didn’t talk about climate is all the more striking when considered alongside last year’s election in Mexico of Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist who also avoided talking about the issue in her campaign. She ran on continuing her predecessor’s work, most importantly popular social programs. (The previous president rarely talked about climate.)
The result is …