Calgary- The new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently announced the formation of his new government, amid high expectations about his ability to lead the Canadian economy towards recovery and achieve growth and stability, in light of deep political and economic crises suffered by the ninth largest economy in the world.
The popular circles, especially among the new immigrants, are awaiting the ability of Carney to face these crises and achieve what he promised during his campaign.
After announcing his ministerial formation, Carney explained that his government is based on a basic team in charge of managing relations with the United States, noting that this team is working to implement the change that the Canadians aspire and deserve, with its commitment to offering new ideas, attracting investments, and building a flexible economy capable of holding in front of future trauma.
Crisis Management Man
Regarding Carney’s ability to save the Canadian economy, Dr. Atef Cypriot, professor of economics at McMaster University, believes that Carney has a busy record in dealing with economic crises, and has a deep knowledge of the ingredients of the Canadian economy and its needs, in addition to a broad network of relations with European countries and others, which enhances his ability to develop external commercial relations that benefit the Canadian economy.
But Cypriot, in his statements to Al -Jazeera Net, noted that opening new markets is not an easy task, but rather requires huge resources, especially since Canada lacks the necessary infrastructure for this commercial expansion.
He also referred to the internal challenges, especially the increasing separatist tendencies in the Alberta and Cibic provinces, which will constitute an additional political challenge to Carney.
Carney has announced on more than one occasion his intention to remove commercial barriers between provinces, reduce economic dependence on the United States, and enhance openness to global markets, stressing in press statements that “the traditional relationship between Canada and the United States has ended,” as he put it.
The United States has recently imposed customs definitions of 25% on imports of steel, aluminum and Canadian cars, which threatens Canada’s decrease of about 15% by 2026, according to estimates of the Canadian “Fraser” institute. This decrease may lead to a decline in the confidence of foreign investors in the Canadian market.
Conditional support from experts
For his part, the debtor of Salman, the financial security adviser, supported what Cyprus went to, noting that Carney, as a former governor of Canada and then the Bank of England, has extensive financial experience that qualifies him to manage this critical stage.
However, Salman stressed, in his interview with “Al -Jazeera Net”, that Carney does not have a “magic wand” to resolve the accumulated challenges, and that his success depends mainly on the cooperation of the Federal Parliament and political parties, to overcome the heavy legacy left by the Justin Trudeau government.
Canada faces a package of internal challenges, most notably the high costs of living, housing high and price inflation, crises that contributed directly to the decline in the popularity of the previous government, and the feelings of popular anger exacerbated, which puts great responsibilities for the new Carney government, which promised huge investments in the housing sector and reduced public spending.
Calm internal tensions
Regarding the priorities of the new government, Salman stressed the need to give priority to resolving differences between Canadian provinces, bringing views closer, and removing restrictions on internal trade, in addition to the importance of implementing major projects, such as the establishment of a pipeline to transport oil and gas between Alberta, Saskatchewan and the West and East coasts.
He also recommended diversifying the sources of the economy and expanding promising areas such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and technology, calling at the same time to review some environmental laws that it considers to hinder the exploitation of the country’s resources efficiently.
In turn, the economist Dr. Ziyad Al -Ghazali, in his interview with “Al -Jazeera Net”, stressed that the Canadian people today are more coherent than ever, due to the American threats to include Canada economically, and the escalation of the pace of customs duties, considering that the results of the recent federal elections reflect this cohesion.
Al -Ghazali saw that Carney is able to face challenges, because of his economic experiences and political sophistication that enabled him to attract voters, taking advantage of the American confusion in commercial policies, promising to strengthen Canada’s relations with the European Union, China, and new markets.
Criticism for his economic vision
On the other hand, the financial and mortgage expert, Ahmed Jadallah, presented a critical vision of the Carney approach, and considered that his plans are very ambitious and lacking realism, and they are very similar to the approaches of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Jadallah, in his interview with Al -Jazeera Net, indicated that the solution to the housing crisis cannot start by announcing the intention of building new housing units, but rather requires first treatment of basic problems, such as lack of employment, the high prices of raw materials, the increase in taxes, the complications of building licenses, and the associated bureaucracy.
Jadallah explained that Carney’s vision to diversify commercial partnerships lack a clear executive plan, and a specialized team to promote the Canadian product abroad, as it does not include an effective mechanism to activate the role of commercial attachés in embassies, in order to reduce dependency on the American market.
He pointed to the absence of concrete incentives to support manufacturers and exporters, or to attract competencies from abroad, which may enhance the leakage of minds to the United States.
Jad Allah described Carney’s economic vision as “an elegant sporting compound, but it is without wheels”, explaining that Carney, despite his great position in the financial circles and its role in containing the 2008-2009 crisis, does not have sufficient tools to make a qualitative change in the current situation, especially since the current economic indicators are not optimistic.
Numbers and expectations
According to the estimates of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, foreign investment flows to Canada amounted to about 2024, about 28.2 billion dollars, compared to $ 25.5 billion during the same period in 2023.
It is expected that this growth will continue during the year 2025 at a rate ranging between 3% and 5%, driven by increasing investments in the clean energy sector.
Waiting for my people tainted with caution
In conclusion, the Canadians and new immigrants seem to be awaiting the performance of the Mark Carney government under exceptional circumstances and unprecedented challenges.
Despite the relative consensus on his experience and leadership capabilities, achieving success depends on calming internal tensions, the ability to deal with American pressure, and build international strategic alliances.
The coming months will be decisive in determining whether Carne will turn his promises into a tangible reality, or if the size of the challenges will exceed his capabilities and aspirations.