CNN
 — 

Mark Carney has been elected leader of Canada’s Liberal Party in a months-long, high stakes race to replace Justin Trudeau.

He will now be expected to lead the party into the next federal elections – which must be held before October, but could be called much earlier – where he is likely to face stiff competition from the Conservative party, which is currently leading in the polls.

While Carney will take over immediately as Liberal Party leader, Trudeau will remain as Canada’s prime minister for an as-yet undisclosed transitional period while his successor settles in.

One of the biggest issues in Carney’s immediate inbox will be the country’s souring relations with the United States.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Canada for illegal immigration into the US, threatened to turn Canada into the US’s 51st state, and impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports, which the White House says is necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

The ripple effects of the tense relations have spread through Canadian society, with fans at NHL and NBA games in Canada even booing the US national anthem.

“Canadian politics is being convulsed by the Trump government’s assertions about Canada’s future as he saw it, and secondly by the tariffs that were very puzzling to a lot of people given the depth of interdependence between the Canadian and American economies,” Allan Tupper, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, told CNN.

Carney will now face off with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who has previously been compared to Trump but now seeks to distance himself from the US leader, reiterating at a press conference earlier this week that he is “not MAGA.”

The Conservatives’ lead has narrowed in recent weeks as Trudeau, Carney and other Liberal Party figures took strong positions on the trade dispute with the US.

Trudeau has led the party for over a decade. He took the Liberals to power in 2015, promising “sunny ways” for Canada and was elected two more times, most recently in 2021, when he remained in power but lost his governing majority.

Trudeau’s impending departure follows a series of political crises, rising economic discontent and the surprise resignation of his deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland.

This is a developing story and will be updated.