New federal Liberal leader must be ready to defend against U.S. threats, say N.B. MP, prof

When Mark Carney took home the Liberal leadership Sunday night, making him prime minister-designate, Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long took to social media with the message, "Well it looks like I'm back!"

Long, who announced two years ago that he wouldn't run in the next election and had pushed for Justin Trudeau to resign as prime minister, said Carney's win changed his mind.

The possibility of running again was set in motion, Long said, when Carney called him, shared his vision for the country and asked if Long would reconsider. 

"To be perfectly blunt and honest, nobody in the previous regime asked me to reconsider," he said, who has already filed papers to run in the riding now called Saint John–Kennebecasis.

Carney was elected Sunday night as Liberal Party of Canada leader with 85.9 per cent of the vote. A date hasn't yet been set for him to take office and he has to first be sworn in by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.

Long said he thinks Carney was viewed as a security blanket by many in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's ongoing tariff and annexation threats.

"I mean, the ballot question over the last couple months has changed from, you know, axe the tax, and Canada is broken, to who's best suited and who's best qualified to defend our country," he said.

"We are under, I would argue, the greatest threat that this country's ever had to its sovereignty and, you know, to its economy."

Long said he thinks Liberals and Conservatives can agree that Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada, has the economic experience to defend the country against Trump's threats. 

Mario Levesque, an associate professor in public policy at Mount Allison University, said he thinks the Liberals chose  Carney as leader because he is less associated with Trudeau, unlike two other candidates, MPs Chrystia Freeland and Liberal MP Karina Gould, for example, who both served in Trudeau's cabinet.

Levesque said if Carney wants to prove himself against Conservative Leader Pierre Pollievre, he will need to continue dissociating himself from the past Liberal government.

Levesque said Carney has already started removing himself from the past government, for example, by promising to make changes to the carbon tax. 

But Levesque said Carney will also need to be seen as having a heart by keeping many social programs in place, and also putting forth a "Canada-first" approach to combat the United States's economic attack.

With Carney's Liberal leadership win, Levesque said, Pollievre and the Conservatives also have an uphill battle to keep their current lead.