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Mark Carney, former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, wants to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party.
Global news reports that whoever is elected leader of the Liberal Party will be Canada’s next prime minister until a fresh election is held.
Since Carney is not a member of Parliament, a debate has risen on the possibility of a non-parliamentarian becoming prime minister.
Phillipe Lagasse, an associate professor at Carleton University who specializes in the Westminster Parliamentary system, said, “there is no law that prevents somebody who isn’t in Parliament from becoming prime minister.
“The office of prime minister is separate and distinct, legally speaking, from that of the office of the parliamentarian.”
He added that Canada relies on constitutional convention, rather than legally enforceable law, to ensure that the prime minister is a member of Parliament and is held responsible for the work of government.
Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said, there is historical precedent for non-MPs becoming prime minister. “The prime minister does not have to be an MP. John Turner was not an MP”, he said.
Although Turner had been elected as an MP in previous elections, he was not one when he became prime minister in 1984. However, his tenure lasted just 11 weeks before he was defeated in a federal election.
Under Canada’s Westminster parliamentary system, Canadians do not actually vote for prime ministers the way Americans vote for presidents. Instead, the leader of the party that forms the government becomes the prime minister.
Legasse said the precedent goes back even further, referencing former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1945.
A more recent example of a non-MP becoming the leader of their party was NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. He was elected as the party’s leader without being an MP. However, Singh won a seat in the House of Commons in February 2019 after becoming NDP leader in October 2017.
Lagasse said, “The convention demands that they obtain a seat in the House of Commons in short order to be able to answer questions and be accountable to the House of Commons.”
Mark Carney was born in Fort Smith, NWT, and raised in Edmonton. He earned a degree in economics from Harvard University and then earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Oxford University.
He was appointed as the governor of the Bank of Canada in 2008. As a result of his steering Canadian monetary policy and the wider economy through a financial firestorm, he was appointed the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.
