In his previous roles as governor of the Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, and of the Bank of England, Carney previously helped both countries weather major financial disruption.

That experience is expected to come in handy as Carney negotiates an ongoing trade war with US President Donald Trump.

He will replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after a landslide victory in last week’s Liberal leadership race.

Governor General Mary Simon will preside over the swearing-in of Carney – Canada’s 24th prime minister – and his cabinet ministers. The moment will formally mark the end of nine years of political power for Trudeau.

But the celebration surrounding his successor’s inauguration may be short lived, if Carney chooses to bring forward Canada’s next federal election – currently scheduled for October.

When the election does happen, Carney is expected to pitch himself as the best equipped candidate to take on Trump in the trade war he has launched since returning to the White House.

Carney has promised to uphold Canada’s reciprocal tariffs on specific American goods for as long as Trump maintains 25% universal tariffs on Canadian goods not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) trade deal.

“We can’t let him succeed,” Carney said in his victory speech on Sunday.

Until the Americans “show us respect” Carney said his government would keep tariffs on US imports.

“I know these are dark days,” Carney said. “Dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.

“We’re getting over the shock, but let us never forget the lessons: we have to look after ourselves and we have to look out for each other. We need to pull together in the tough days ahead.”

Canada is dependent on trade with the US. Economists say it risks a recession if Trump’s tariffs are fully imposed.

When the federal election comes, Carney’s main rival will be Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre who has been compared in his style to Trump – which is now seen by some pundits as an electoral liability rather than an asset.

Before the the threat of tariffs, Conservatives enjoyed a 20-point lead in some election polls. Now, some polls are indicating a much closer race.

When Canadians next go to the polls, the Liberals will face not only the Conservatives – who are the official opposition with 120 seats in the House of Commons – but also the Bloc Quebecois, who have 33 seats, and the New Democrats, who have 24.

That outcome does not look so certain now.

In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has surged in the polls, shrinking the double-digit lead their Conservative rivals had held steadily since mid-2023.

The dramatic change in the country’s political landscape reflects how Trump’s tariffs and his repeated calls to make Canada “the 51st state” have fundamentally altered Canadian voters’ priorities.

Trump’s rhetoric has “pushed away all of the other issues” that were top of mind for Canadians before his inauguration on 20 January, notes Luc Turgeon, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa.

It has even managed to revive the once deeply unpopular Trudeau, whose approval rate has climbed by 12 points since December. The prime minister, of course, will not be in power for much longer, having announced his resignation at the start of the year.

On Sunday, his Liberals will declare the results of the leadership contest to determine who takes over a party running a precarious minority government. The new leader will have two immediate decisions to make: how to respond to Trump’s threats, and when to call a general election. The answer to the first dilemma will surely influence the second.

A federal election must be held on or before 20 October, but could be called as early as this week.

Polls indicate that many Canadians still want a change at the top. But what that change would look like – a Liberal government under new leadership, or a complete shift to the Conservatives – is now anyone’s guess, says Greg Lyle, president of the Toronto-based Innovative Research Group, which has been polling Canadians on their shifting attitudes.

“Up until now, it was a blowout for the Conservatives,” he tells the BBC.

That is because the centre-right party led by Pierre Poilievre, has been effective in its messaging on issues that have occupied the Canadian psyche for the last few years: the rising cost of living, housing unaffordability, crime and a strained healthcare system.

Poilievre successfully tied these societal problems to what he labelled Trudeau’s “disastrous” policies, and promised a return to “common sense politics”.

But with Trudeau’s resignation, and Trump’s threats to Canada’s economic security and even its sovereignty, that messaging has become stale, Mr Lyle says. His polling suggests the majority of the country is now most afraid of Trump’s presidency and the impact it will have on Canada.

Trump’s 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to the US, some of which have been paused until 2 April, could be devastating for Canada’s economy, which sends three-quarters of all its products to the US. Officials have predicted up to a million job losses as a result, and Canada could head into a recession if the tax on goods persists.

Trudeau left no doubt how seriously he is taking the threat, when he told reporters this week that Trump’s stated reason for the US tariffs – the flow of fentanyl across the border – was bogus and unjustified.

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” the prime minister warned.

“In many ways, it’s an all encompassing, fundamental issue about the survival of the country,” Prof Turgeon tells the BBC. Who is best placed to stand up for Canada against Trump has therefore become the key question in the forthcoming election.

The Conservatives are still ahead in the polls, with the latest averages suggesting 40% of voters back them. The Liberals’ fortunes, meanwhile, have been revived, with their support climbing to slightly over 30% – up 10 points from January.

There are clear differences, however, between the two politicians, in terms of style and substance. And Trump himself has downplayed any parallels, telling British magazine The Spectator in a recent interview that Poilievre is “not Maga enough”.

Still, polls suggest a slipping of Conservative support. A recent poll by national pollster Angus Reid indicates Canadians believe Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney is better equipped to deal with Trump on issues of tariffs and trade than Poilievre.

The former central banker for both Canada and England is touting his experience dealing with economic crises, including the 2008 financial crash and Brexit.

And the shift in the political mood has forced Conservatives to recalculate their messaging.

If the election is called soon, the campaign will take place at a moment when Trump’s threats have inspired a fierce patriotism among Canadians. Many are boycotting American goods at their local grocery stores or even cancelling trips to the US.

Prof Turgeon says this “rallying around the flag” has become a key theme of Canadian politics.

The Conservatives have shifted away from their “Canada is Broken” slogan, which Mr Lyle says risked coming across as “anti-patriotic”, to “Canada First”.

Conservatives have also redirected their attacks towards Carney. Before Trump’s tariffs, they ran ads saying he is “just like Justin” in an attempt to tie him to Trudeau. But in recent weeks, the Conservatives have started digging into Carney’s loyalty to Canada.

Specifically, they have questioned whether he had a role in moving the headquarters of Brookfield Asset Management – a Canadian investment company – from Toronto to New York when he served as its chair.

Carney has responded that he had left the firm by the time that decision was made, but company documents reported on by public broadcaster CBC show the board approved the move in October 2024, when Carney was still at Brookfield.

The move, and Carney’s equivocation of his involvement with it, was criticised by the editorial board of Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail, which wrote on Thursday that Carney must be transparent with Canadians.

More broadly, the paper wrote: “Every party leader must understand that Canada is entering a years-long period of uncertainty. The next prime minister will have to call on the trust of Canadians to lead the country where it needs to head but may not want to go.”

Given the anxiety reverberating among Canadians, Mr Lyle says that any ambiguity about Carney’s loyalty to the country could yet be damaging for him and the Liberals.

Whenever the election comes, and whoever wins, one thing is certain: Trump will continue to influence and reshape Canadian politics just as he has in the United States.

The pair interrupted each other repeatedly in front of the media during what was supposed to be a prelude to signing a minerals deal.

After relations first became strained over Trump’s handling of Ukraine peace talks with Russia, the minerals agreement was supposed to be a stepping stone towards further security ties between the countries.

But Zelensky was told by the Americans to leave before the deal could be signed.

At one point, Trump told Zelensky he was not thankful enough for US military and political support, and that he was “gambling with World War Three”.

Zelensky had earlier argued there should be “no compromises” with Russian President Vladimir Putin – but Trump said Kyiv would have to make concessions to reach a peace deal with Russia.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory.

The meeting to discuss the US-Ukraine deal, which involved access to Ukrainian oil, gas and rare minerals, came after the new US president appeared to blame Zelensky for the war and chided him for not starting peace talks with Russia earlier.

His tone had softened in recent days, with Trump saying he had “a lot of respect” for the Ukrainian leader.

But Friday’s conversation soured after the US Vice-President JD Vance – who was sat alongside other politicians in the room – told Zelensky that the war had to be ended through diplomacy.

Zelensky responded by asking “what kind of diplomacy?”, referencing a previous ceasefire deal in 2019, agreed three years before Russia’s full-scale invasion when Moscow was supporting and arming separatist fighters in Ukraine’s east.

The vice-president then accused Zelensky of being disrespectful and “litigating” the situation in front of the media.

From there, the discussion escalated quickly, as Trump and Vance accused Ukraine’s president of being ungrateful for three years of US support during the war with Russia, with Trump saying Zelensky was in no position to tell the US how it should feel.

Not long after the meeting – and well ahead of the pre-planned schedule – Zelensky was seen leaving the White House in his official vehicle

Trump took to Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, to say “Zelensky disrespected the US in its cherished Oval Office”.

“I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” the Republican president continued. “I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE.”

Zelensky also posted on social media, thanking the president and the US four times.

In a later interview with Fox News, Zelensky said the public spat “was not good” – but the relationship between him and Trump could be salvaged.

“Because the relations are more than just two presidents,” he said, adding that it was also about “strong relations between our two people.”

Reaction to the White House meeting among US politicians appeared to fall along partisan lines, with Republicans praising Trump and Democrats criticising him.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – once a staunch supporter of Ukraine – told reporters: “What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”

He said Zelensky “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change”.

Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries described Zelensky’s treatment as “appalling”, adding that it “will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin”.

In Ukraine, there was broadly appreciation for Zelensky holding his ground over what is, for them, an existential war.

“Trump’s administration was so arrogant,” one man in Kyiv told the BBC. “When you look at Zelensky’s face, you understand that the discussion behind the closed doors was not so polite.

“They are so rude, they don’t respect the people of Ukraine. They even don’t hide it.”

The Oval Office spat also prompted words of support for Zelensky from key European allies, including France.

A spokeswoman for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – who has cast himself as a mediator between the US and Europe as the Trump administration adopts a more isolationist approach to the continent – said he had spoken to both leaders.

She said Sir Keir “retains unwavering support for Ukraine, and is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace”.

Friedrich Merz, who is expected to become Germany’s next chancellor, wrote that he stood with Ukraine “in good and testing times”, adding: “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge”.

Russia, meanwhile, said Trump and Vance had acted with restraint. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said it was a miracle the pair hadn’t hit Zelensky.

The prime minister welcomed the members of his new cabinet during a swearing-in ceremony in the capital, Ottawa, on Friday.

Among the most important portfolios, Ontario MP David McGuinty was named Canada’s minister of public safety, overseeing federal law enforcement agencies.

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who also represents an electoral district in Ontario, is the new housing minister.

The shake-up comes after Canada’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced on Monday that she was resigning amid a disagreement with Trudeau over how to handle a possible “tariff war” with the United States.

Last month, US President-elect Donald Trump warned Canada that he would impose 25-percent tariffs against the country if it didn’t do more to stem irregular migration and the flow of illegal drugs across its border with the US.

The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Freeland wrote in her resignation letter.“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war.”

Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015, has faced months of pressure to resign as leader of the Liberal Party before federal elections that must be held before late October.

His popularity has plummeted in recent years as Canada faces a range of challenges, from a housing crisis to soaring costs of living. Polls showed the Liberals far behind the opposition Conservative Party heading into the 2025 elections.

This week, several Liberal MPs publicly called on the prime minister to step down after Freeland’s resignation, but many have continued to stand by Trudeau despite the mounting pressure.

After Friday’s swearing-in ceremony, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, a Liberal minister who was named as the new president of the Treasury Board, expressed her support for Trudeau.

“We’re all here today because we absolutely support the prime minister,” Petitpas Taylor told reporters. “We are here today. We are a united front, and again, we are truly looking forward to working for Canadians.”

The Globe and Mail reported on Thursday that the prime minister was holding discussions with senior cabinet members and party leaders about his future.

Quoting three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Trudeau won’t make a decision until early in the new year about whether he plans to step down or stay on as leader.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have been urging Trudeau to resign or call elections.

On Friday, the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) – which until September had been propping up the Liberal minority government – said it would put forward a no-confidence motion to bring down the government when the Canadian Parliament reconvenes in late January.

“Justin Trudeau failed in the biggest job a Prime Minister has: to work for people, not the powerful. To focus on Canadians, not themselves,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement shared on social media on Friday.

“The Liberals don’t deserve another chance. That’s why the NDP will vote to bring this government down, and give Canadians a chance to vote for a government who will work for them,” he continued.

“No matter who is leading the Liberal Party, this government’s time is up. We will put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons.”

If all the opposition parties vote in favour of the motion, Trudeau’s government will fall and elections will be scheduled.

Announcing her resignation on social media she said, “the job I came to do is now complete”, citing the RNC’s successes in fundraising and voter turnout.

She did not specify her next move, but some Trump allies have lobbied for her to replace Senator Marco Rubio, the president-elect’s pick for secretary of state.

If he is confirmed as America’s top diplomat by the Senate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would hand-pick a replacement to serve out the remainder of Rubio’s six-year term, which ends in 2026.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Lara Trump said she would be open to taking over Rubio’s seat.”It is something I would seriously consider,” she said. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like.”

Elected as RNC co-chair in March, Trump was hand-picked by her father-in-law – yet another indication of his iron-clad grip on the Republican party.

Alongside her husband, Eric, and his older brother Don Jr, Lara Trump emerged as one of the most prominent campaign surrogates for Donald Trump’s White House bid this year.

“Serving as the GOP co-chair throughout the course of the most consequential election in American history has truly been the honor of my life,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. She also thanked her father-in-law, writing: “we are so proud of you, and I’m grateful you trusted me in this position.”

Several Republicans, including Senator Rick Scott of Florida, have publicly supported her as Rubio’s replacement in the Senate.

Last month, Maye Musk, the mother of close Trump ally Elon Musk, offered Lara Trump an explicit endorsement for Senate, writing on X: “The next senator for Florida should be [Lara Trump]. The Senate is an old man’s club. We desperately need a smart, young, outspoken woman who will reveal their secrets.

“Elon Musk replied to the post: “Lara Trump is genuinely great.”The Florida Senate seat would be up for election again in 2028.

The Chinese-speaking Weidel accepted the nomination on Saturday, saying her anti-immigration, eurosceptic party wants Germany to be “at the top again worldwide”.

The 45-year-old is raising two sons with a Sri Lankan-born woman, a filmmaker, and speaks fluent Mandarin, having done a doctorate in economics in China.

A west German leading a party that is strongest in Germany’s former communist east, she worked for Goldman Sachs and Allianz Global Investors and as a freelance business consultant before entering politics.

Her critics call her a ruthless opportunist and a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

Weidel will be confirmed as the AfD’s candidate at a party conference in January.

Her candidacy is largely symbolic given that there is no prospect of a majority in parliament in favour of an AfD chancellor, with other parties refusing to cooperate with the far-right party.

As the party met for the nomination in northern Berlin, about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the venue, demanding a ban on the AfD and chanting, “All together against fascism.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s squabbling three-party coalition collapsed in early November after he fired former Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) following months of disputes over economic policy and the 2025 budget.

The chancellor has announced plans to hold a vote of confidence later this month, which is widely expected to lead to early elections on February 23.

Weidel has explained the AfD’s decision to nominate a candidate for chancellor by asserting that her party has a claim to govern, citing its opinion poll ratings.

The AfD, which was founded in 2013 and first entered parliament in 2017, is currently polling between 18 and 19 percent nationwide, placing it in second position behind the conservative Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) bloc with 32 to 33 percent.

The governing Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Scholz is currently polling at about 18 percent.

Deep discontent with Scholz’s government – which was notorious for infighting, inflation and a weak economy – as well as anti-immigration sentiment and scepticism towards German military aid for Ukraine, are among the factors that contributed to support for the AfD.

AfD is at its strongest in the east, and the domestic intelligence agency has the party’s branches in both Saxony and Thuringia under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups.

The other candidates expected to run for the chancellery are Scholz for the centre-left Social Democrats, Friedrich Merz for the Christian Democrats, and Robert Habeck for the environmentalist Greens.

LIf the measure passes on Wednesday, as is expected, it would mark the first time a French government has been removed this way in more than 60 years.

The National Assembly is due to vote after debating two motions introduced by the left-wing camp and far-right nationalists, which together count more than 330 politicians. A no-confidence motion requires at least 288 of 574 votes to pass.

The far-right National Rally (RN) of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is expected to vote for the motion put forward by the left, giving it enough numbers to pass.

The session is due to start at 4pm (15:00 GMT), with voting expected hours later. President Emmanuel Macron is set to return to France from a state visit to Saudi Arabia during the day.

Macron, whose term ends in 2027, has dismissed the threat of his potential removal from office amid the turmoil, saying such discussions were “make-believe politics”.

I am here because I’ve been elected twice by the French people,” Macron was quoted as saying by French media. “We must not scare people with such things. We have a strong economy.”

But the toppling of the Barnier government after just three months in office would leave the president with few options over how to go forward and who to appoint in his place.

No new elections can be called for a year after the previous legislative polls. Macron could ask Barnier to stay on in a caretaker role as he seeks a new prime minister, which could happen only next year.

Asked on French television if there was a chance his government could survive Wednesday’s vote, Barnier replied: “I want this and it is possible. It depends on the MPs,” he said.

The latest political turmoil follows snap elections called by Macron in June in a bid to halt the surge of the far right, which left no party or faction in parliament with a majority.

Some observers have suggested that Le Pen, 56, is seeking to bring down Macron before his term ends by ousting Barnier. The far-right leader is embroiled in a high-profile embezzlement trial and, if found guilty in March, could be blocked from participating in France’s next presidential election in 2027.

She has insisted that the party’s stance was entirely due to a budget that would make the French poorer. “Censuring the budget is for us the only way the constitution gives us to protect the French,” Le Pen told reporters as she arrived in parliament.

If the government falls, it would be the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.

Authorities said that Allexis Ferrell, 27, attacked a cat in Canton, Ohio.

Ferrell is a US citizen and the incident happened about 170 miles (270km) away from a large Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio.

Her case was one of several incidents cited online, which fed into rumours about immigrant eating pets. The stories were eventually repeated by President-elect Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

Ferrell was sentenced on Monday after previously pleading guilty to cruelty to companion animals.

She also was ordered to serve an additional 18 months for violating probation conditions from a previous child endangerment charge.

On 16 August, Canton police responded to a report of a woman smashing a cat’s head with her foot and eating the animal.

An officer saw blood on her feet and fur on her lips, according to local news reports.

According to the Canton Repository newspaper, Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione told Ferrell: “This is repulsive to me. I mean, that anyone would do this to an animal.

“I can’t express the disappointment, shock, disgust that this crime has brought to me,” the judge said at the sentencing hearing.

In several posts online, Ferrell was falsely described as an immigrant.

However, Canton Police said that they had “not dealt with any complaints of Haitian immigrants at all.”

Springfield police also denied the rumours, saying at the time: “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

Springfield is a city of about 60,000 people in south-west Ohio, where 12,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in recent years, mostly drawn by work in local factories.

Rumours about eating pets circulated in the city earlier this year, before the Canton incident. An unrelated post on Reddit appeared to show a man carrying a dead bird in Columbus, Ohio, and a Facebook message mentioning the rumours was posted on a Springfield crime board.

These disparate stories were grafted together by anti-immigrant and pro-Trump influencers online, forging an unsubstantiated rumour later repeated by Vance online – that foreigners were catching and consuming pets in Springfield.

During the presidential debate in September, Trump said: “In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats.”Vance later told CNN that the pet-eating stories were based on “first-hand account of my constituents” but did not provide further details.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told CNN.