Pro-CBDC, Anti-Bitcoin Mark Carney Wins Canadian Liberal Party Leadership Bid, Becomes Interim Prime Minister

• Mark Carney won the Liberal Party leadership contest with 85.9% of the vote.
• He was governor of Canada’s central bank from 2008 to 2013 and the Bank of England’s boss from 2013 to 2020.
• Carney has mixed views on crypto but believes that CBDCs offer many benefits.

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of Canada (BoC) has won the race to lead the Canadian Liberal Party, positioning him as the prime minister-designate to succeed Justin Trudeau.

His leadership will be tested in Canada’s upcoming elections, where he will either solidify his role or face defeat against Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.

Landslide Victory

An economic heavyweight, Carney, with 85.9% of the vote, beat out three rivals in a landslide victory, ending the two-month-long leadership battle in Canada following Trudeau’s resignation in January 2025.

The former BoE governor has long opposed Bitcoin (BTC), which he described as having “serious deficiencies.” In 2018, he famously stated:

“[…] recreating a virtual global gold standard would be a criminal act of monetary amnesia.”

Carney argues that Bitcoin’s fixed supply fuels speculation and makes it a poor short-term store of value. Instead, he is a strong proponent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a stance that could spell trouble for Canada’s struggling crypto scene.

His position may also add strain to Canada’s relationship with the U.S., as Donald Trump recently signed an executive order banning the creation of a U.S. dollar CBDC while officially establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve.

Carney’s Canada

Just a week after Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as PM, Carney declared his leadership bid.

He said the Canadian system wasn’t working, citing the frequently raised concerns about the nation’s economic downturn, a cost of living and housing crisis, and climate woes.

“I’m doing this because Canada is the best country in the world, but it could still be even better,” Carney said.

Mark Carney is a storied individual in the world of finance. After serving five years as the head of Canada’s central bank, Carney immediately transitioned into becoming the BoE’s first-ever non-British governor in 2013.

For seven years, he presided over one of the U.K.’s oldest institutions, which he is credited for modernizing. He also gained a reputation for making frequent media appearances and overseeing the U.K. economy through political woes such as Brexit.

Crypto, Stablecoins, and CBDCs

In 2018, when cryptocurrencies reached the mainstream during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, Carney made statements on BTC that they had aged like milk. Namely, this quote from a Q&A session at London Regent’s University:

“It has pretty much failed thus far on … the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange,” Carney said.

Furthermore, Carney has argued that stablecoins give too much power to big tech, and if they become integrated into the global economy, they pose significant structural risks.

In his 2021 speech to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Carney explained that stablecoins could fragment monetary system liquidity and are “ultimately an appendage” to existing monetary systems “and not a game changer.”

“It is not clear why a single CBDC wouldn’t perform better,” he said.

Carney is a major proponent of CBDCs. He has previously noted that he envisions a world where CBDCs are at the core of the economy.

He believes they offer greater security and user benefits than cryptos and stablecoins. His views are similar to that of outgoing PM Justin Trudeau, who has been critical of cryptocurrencies and favored implementing a Canadian dollar CBDC, much to the dismay of Canadians.

Following the controversial ice trucker protests in which Trudeau’s government froze both the bank accounts and crypto transactions of protesting truckers, Canadians were concerned with Trudeau’s cynical resolution, which the public viewed as a tyrannical abuse of power.

Trudeau is also a proponent of CBDCs and espoused anti-crypto rhetoric in the past.

Ideologically, Carney is likely only interested in improving the economic conditions of his beloved country. Regardless, a vote for Carney is a vote for CBDCs, which Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre is staunchly against.