Mark Carney came to prominence in Britain as the man hand-picked by George Osborne to be governor of the Bank of England and help bring financial stability after the 2008 banking collapse.
But his tenure at the Bank became better known for his failed attempts to stop Brexit in the 2016 referendum and a rearguard action to mitigate the disaster of leaving the EU.
However, while he failed to stop Brexit he now hopes to be the man who can step in and prevent populists taking control in Canada.
The economist, 59, who holds British and Irish as well as Canadian citizenship, has put himself forward to replace Justin Trudeau as the next leader of the Liberal Party in Canada and become its prime minister.
Carney was the first governor of the Bank of England chosen from outside Britain when he took up his post in 2013 which lasted until 2020.
Even though he had a strained relationship with Boris Johnson over Brexit he was still appointed as an advisor by the former prime minister when he finished at the Bank of England.
More recently he was unveiled as an advisor to Rachel Reeves a year before Labour won the election.
It was always understood that he saw the position as a stepping stone for his political ambitions back in Canada for when Trudeau, a darling of international liberalism, would eventually step down.
When Osborne appointed him as Lord Mervyn King’s successor he handed him an expanded remit for the Bank to bring financial supervision for a still reeling financial sector in the UK following the collapse of Northern Rock, HBOSand the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The then chancellor described Carney as “the outstanding central banker of his generation”, adding that Mr Carney would bring the “strong leadership and external experience the Bank needs”.
He said: “Mr Carney is unique amongst the potential candidates in combining long experience of central banking, huge international credibility in economics, deep expertise in financial regulation and a first-hand experience of private sector financial institutions”.
One of his early battles as governor though was not a financial one but keeping the UK together as he was rolled out as part of the so-called Project Fear to give warnings about Scottish independence ahead of the 2014 referendum.
In particular he noted that Scotland sharing the UK pound would mean an independent Scotland would in fact lose sovereignty and he made warnings about Scotland needing a massive increase in foreign currency reserves if it were to go independent.
The currency arguments were seen as crucial in eventually defeating Alex Salmond’s push for independence.
