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Mark J. Carney ’87 has defeated Conservative Party Leader Pierre M. Poilievre to remain in power as Canada’s Prime Minister securing the Liberal’s fourth consecutive mandate during a snap election on Monday.

In a dramatic reversal from January polls, Carney’s Liberal Party won a plurality of seats in the general election, securing enough votes in the Canadian House of Commons to maintain their hold on government.

It remains unclear whether the Liberals will cross the 172 seat threshold and form a majority government for the first time in 2015. As of 10:20 p.m. Sunday evening they led in more than 140 seats, the Conservatives led in more than 100 seats.

Carney, a former Canadian and U.K. bank governor and political novice, has been in power since the Canadian Liberal Party elected him their leader in early March. He had served on the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s second-highest governing body, before resigning on the day of his party election on March 6, when he defeated fellow alum Chrystia A. Freeland ’90 in a landslide.

The election was triggered in January when Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned from his role as Liberal Party Leader and stepped down from the nation’s top post. At the time of Trudeau’s resignation, prospective polls showed the Liberal party winning only 25 percent of the vote to the conservatives 40.1 percent.

Frank L. Graves, founder of the Canadian polling firm EKOS Research Associates Inc., said the country’s increasingly adversarial relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump was a driving force in the shift toward the Liberal Party.

“This was the key factor that drove the liberal vote from 19 points at the beginning of the year to in the mid 40s, which is the biggest movement we’ve seen in the political landscape in Canada in our long history,” Graves said.

“The new Trump administration, both on things they said about Canada, like tariffs and annexation, but also this broadly, you know, the whole style of this style of populism, really was off putting for a lot of Canadians,” he added.

Since taking office, Trump has escalated attacks against America’s northern neighbor, including repeatedly threatening to annex Canada and make it the 51st U.S. state. But relations deteriorated after Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on Canada in February — quickly followed by 25 percent retaliatory tariffs implemented by Trudeau’s government that remain in effect.

“Financially, the cost of living is very high. We have a housing crisis. And so these are real concerns that people have, and Polievre has been campaigning on those concerns for a couple of years. And so people are trusting that a change in government is more likely to bring some relief than not,” said Laura B. Stephenson, a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario.

“In a normal election, I would have expected that also, you know, the Liberals wouldn’t necessarily do very well this time around,” Stephenson said.

“But then all of a sudden, these threats — not only to our entire trade regime, but also to our sovereignty as a nation — that is changing things a bit,” she added.

Since assuming office, Carney’s messaging has remained firm on Trump.

“President Trump has betrayed Canada,” Carney said at a campaign event Monday. “Our old relationship with the United States is over.”

Carney, who was elected to Harvard’s Board of Overseers in 2021, stepped down on March 9, the same day Liberal Party elected him as their new leader. He faced criticism in the days leading up to his election for remaining on the boards of several organizations while running to replace Trudeau.

Before graduating from Harvard College in 1987 with a degree in economics, Carney played varsity hockey and was a member of the A.D. club.

Peter E. Chiarelli ’87, Carney’s college roommate in Winthrop House, said he often joked he would be prime minister “ kind of half seriously” during their time at Harvard.

“He just impressed me — his drive, his work ethic,” he said.

“Mr. Carney’s background, his CV, his experience, including, obviously, his Harvard education, for most Canadians, have been an asset,” Graves added. “They are a key to the reason that he’s going to be the prime minister with the majority government at what is seen as one of the most perilous times in Canadian history.”

–Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at abigail.gerstein@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.

–Staff writer Avi W. Burstein can be reached at avi.burstein@thecrimson.com.