Canadian Prime Minister Candidate Mark Carney To Resign from Harvard Board of Overseers on Election Day

Updated March 2, 2025, at 10:17 p.m.

Mark J. Carney ’87, the frontrunner to become Canada’s 24th Prime Minister, will step down from Harvard’s second-highest governing body on March 9, the day the Liberal Party is set to elect its next leader.

His campaign was launched in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announced resignation. He leads fellow Harvard College alumna and former deputy prime minister Chrystia A. Freeland ’90 by 10 points in the polls.

The Liberal Party’s vote will conclude on March 9, when the winner will be sworn-in as the new Prime Minister.

Carney informed University officials that he would step down from Harvard’s Board of Overseers in January, when he entered the race for leadership of the Canadian Liberal Party, according to a spokesperson for Carney. At the time, representatives for Carney did not respond to questions about his future on the board.

A University spokesperson confirmed to The Crimson on Saturday that Carney has communicated he will leave the board on March 9.

Originally elected to the Board in 2021, Carney was set to serve until 2027. While several members have remained on the board while running for public office, they have not served while in elected positions.

Carney’s decision to step down will create an additional vacancy ahead of the board’s annual overseers elections next month. Alumni will vote to elect five new overseers from a slate of eight candidates nominated by the Harvard Alumni Association.

Carney said he resigned from all of his commitments when he launched his bid in January, but has since been widely criticized for remaining on several board positions, including the British think tank Chatham House and Harvard.

Though he has never been elected to office, Carney led the Canadian central bank through the 2008 financial crisis and led England’s central bank through Brexit. He also worked as a United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance. In September, Trudeau selected Carney to chair a Liberal party task force on economic growth.

In 2021, Carney ran for the Board on a platform of divesting from fossil fuels and creating an ethnic studies department.

The Canadian parliament is currently suspended. When it returns in late March, the Conservative Party and other opposition parties are prepared to trigger a general election with a no-confidence vote.

Though the Liberal Party has trailed Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre by over 20 points in general polls, recent polling suggests that if Carney were to become leader, the party would be in a dead heat with the Conservatives in the next election.

According to a spokesperson for Carney, he does not have any more meetings for the board before his resignation takes effect.

–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.