Mark Carney

Mark Carney (born 1965) governed two G7 central banks — the Bank of Canada through the 2008 crisis and the Bank of England through Brexit — before becoming prime minister of Canada in March 2025. Facing US tariff pressure and a productivity slump, he made technology adoption central to his economic-sovereignty pitch, and AI its sharpest edge.

A minister for AI

In May 2025, Carney created Canada’s first-ever Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation portfolio, appointing broadcaster-turned-politician Evan Solomon. Solomon set the tone immediately, telling tech leaders he would not be “over-indexing on warnings and regulation” — a marked shift from the stalled regulatory push of the Trudeau years toward adoption and commercialization.

AI for All

On June 4, 2026, Carney launched AI for All, Canada’s new national AI strategy: over $2 billion in funding, a target of 250,000 AI-related jobs by 2031, sovereign compute, and a heavy emphasis on public trust and keeping intellectual property under Canadian law. Reception split on predictable lines — the Globe and Mail’s editorial board judged the Liberals were thinking too small, while critics on the left called the agenda “a gift to Big Tech” that buys adoption without meaningful guardrails. Carney’s counter is characteristic of the banker he was: the risk of moving too slowly is priced too, and Canada — birthplace of much of deep learning — should capture the value it helped create.