Justin Trudeau’s tenure as prime minister may come to an end sooner than later after his economic platform adviser, Mark Carney, announced he will enter elected politics at an unspecified point.

“I believe in the Liberal Party. I think it’s got the right values,” Carney told Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith in a podcast interview. 

“It has the right combination of a social conscience and social priorities at its core … but it also understands that we need a strong economy in order to ultimately deliver that,” he added. 

When Erskine-Smith asked specifically if Carney would run for member of Parliament before aiming for the party leadership, Carney quipped, “I’m in the trenches,” before adding: “I mean, you can’t map these things out. Of course, there’s value in that.”

That represents a departure from earlier comments made during a media interview with CTV News, where Carney ruled out a future leadership bid. “It's easy not to rule out something that doesn't exist,” he said last January.

Now equipped with a change of heart, Trudeau’s adviser said entering partisan politics is personal because Canadians have given him “virtually everything.” He hopes to draw on his public and private sector experience as an economist to build up Canada.

“I have been a public figure through crises in Canada, elsewhere around the world … I’ve worked with a variety of governments,” Carney said. “I know how to deal with tough issues and not just talk about them, but implement and get things done.”

Carney says he navigated the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and the Brexit referendum as Bank governor. He also touted his efforts to drive trillions of investment dollars towards sustainable investments.

Trudeau’s economic advisor took shots specifically at Tory leader Pierre Poilievre, who he described as a lifelong politician who “talks about the market in a way … that portrays very limited understanding of how the economy actually works.”

It takes more than “a series of simplistic slogans” to build an economy, Carney said. “I understand how the world works.”

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Carney lauded the global transition towards ‘clean energy’ investments and artificial intelligence during the podcast interview. He then claimed the changing nature of industry presents an opportunity for Canada. 

In an emailed statement to the Toronto Star, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman dismissed “Carbon Tax Carney,” who currently serves as the UN special envoy on climate action and finance.

“Trudeau’s phantom Finance Minister is desperately trying to distract from the carbon tax and other disastrous Liberal policies he supports that are crushing Canadians,” the statement read.

In a prior CTV segment, Carney maintained the federal government is “on the right track,” and that he “supports the prime minister.”

Prime Minister Trudeau has insisted his plans are to lead the party into the next federal election, which is currently scheduled for October 2025.

“The stakes are high, so that pulls me towards trying to be part of it,” Carney said during the podcast interview, describing himself as a centrist.

The adviser attempted to counter the Conservative image of him as a member of the global elite, having served on the board of the World Economic Forum, though he clarified he would “not run away from” his record.

Carney served nearly two decades as governor to the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, and considers himself “an outsider.” 

Poilievre described Carney last month as “somebody with too many conflicts.” 

“He gets to push his radical Davos agenda [in Canada] of ‘you will own nothing and be happy,’” he told reporters.