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Liberal Mark Carney entertains crowd on ‘The Daily Show’, jokes about leadership run

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Liberal party member and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney entertained the audience at The Daily Show on Monday night and joked with host Jon Stewart about entering the race for party head.

In a tongue-and-cheek interview on the New York City-based show the Northwest Territories-born Carney also spoke about President-elect Donald Trump’s 51st state comments, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, the Canadian economy and climate change and fossil fuels.

Carney and Stewart poked fun about Canada and the U.S. being a dating couple going through a rough patch.

Jokes aside, in all seriousness, the economist said statehood is not going to happen but the U.S. and Canada can be “friends with benefits.”

Carney also said that much of Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions stem from the oil industry, adding that they will need to be cleaned up over the long-term, “but we need to do it in a way that Canadians today are not paying the price.”

Stewart spoke with Carney about Poilievre when he displayed to viewers and audience members an image with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on one side and Poilievre on the other. The comedian said that Poilievre looked “very off-putting” and “like a villain in a Karate Kid movie.”

Carney piped in, saying:

“There is a type of politician — you have a few of them here in the United States and they had a lot in and around Brexit and we have Mr. Poilievre in Canada — a type of politician who tend to be lifelong politician, really tend to worship the market but they’ve never actually worked in the private sector,” said Carney.

When asked about the Liberal party and who will run to replace Justin Trudeau, Carney pointed out that a number candidates are “not running, in part, because there’s a crisis right now because of the threat of the Trump tariffs … country before party and personal ambition, and it’s absolutely right.”

Carney hinted that perhaps he was better positioned to run for Trudeau’s job.

“Let’s say the candidate wasn’t part of the government. Let’s say the candidate did have a lot of economic experience. Let’s say the candidate did deal with prices. Let’s say the candidate had a plan to deal with the challenges in the here and now,” teased Carney.

“You sneaky… you’re running as an outsider,” said Stewart.

“I am an outsider,” Carney replied.

The Ottawa resident is expected to announce plans next week to run for the Liberal leadership to replace outgoing PM Justin Trudeau.

READ MORE: Liberal party to announce new leadership by March 9