(Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Mark Carney to join his Liberal government, the Globe and Mail reported, citing four people it didn’t identify.
Carney, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, was non-committal in the discussions about entering politics, the newspaper said. Carney wasn’t offered a specific cabinet position, three of the four people told the Globe, which didn’t receive a response from Carney to its requests for comment.
To be a member of the government, Carney would eventually need to have a seat in Canada’s House of Commons. The Globe reported that the prime minister said Carney could win one through a byelection in a vacant district or by running in a general election that’s due next year.
Carney’s name has been circulating in Canadian political circles in recent days as Trudeau grapples with one of the biggest political challenges of his career. The prime minister and the government are deeply unpopular, and his Liberal Party trails the opposition Conservative Party by a wide margin in polls. If that gap persists into next year’s election, the Conservatives would enjoy a landslide victory.
Adding Carney to the government’s bench would potentially help Trudeau’s efforts to reset — particularly as polling suggests that Canadians believe the prime minister is weaker on economic issues than Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
During a news conference in Washington last week, Trudeau said he has been talking to Carney for years about getting him to enter politics, adding that the former central banker would be “an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics.”
But the Carney speculation has also opened up questions about the future of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. In an interview with Bloomberg News last week, Freeland said she fully supports Trudeau as prime minister and that it’s up to him to answer questions about who serves in his cabinet.
“My perspective is clear and actually very simple, which is I really consider it a privilege every single day that I serve as finance minister and deputy prime minister,” she said.
Freeland said she talks to Carney “pretty often,” adding: “Both of us are from northern Alberta. We both went to high school in Edmonton. I’ve known him for a long time.”
A spokesperson for Trudeau told Bloomberg: “The prime minister has full confidence in Chrystia Freeland as deputy prime minister and finance minister.” The Globe’s story said Freeland has been assured that her job is safe.
Carney is the chairman of Bloomberg Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management.
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