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Now, the former central banking superstar who entered the fray declaring himself an outsider and “not a politician” will command a Liberal government and continue as Canada’s 24th prime minister — a result that seemed all but impossible before he jumped into partisan politics less than four months ago.

At the Liberal campaign’s election night party in central Ottawa, supporters cheered from the covered floor of a hockey arena as a huge TV screen declared their party was projected to hold power in the 45th general election. But the mood was far from jubilant most of the night, as Liberals waited for creeping results that would decide whether their win would bring the expanded power of a majority in the House of Commons.��

By the early hours of Tuesday morning, the electoral map showed a more polarized pattern of votes, with ballots nationally flowing to the Liberals and Conservatives at the expense of the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party, whose leader Jagmeet Singh lost his own seat and announced he would resign after more than seven years in his position. But it seemed the Liberals were on track to fall short of a majority, meaning the Carney government would have to navigate the fraught dynamics of a minority Parliament and — depending on the final seat count — rely on reduced Bloc, NDP or even Green support from the party’s sole re-elected representative, co-leader Elizabeth May, to pass legislation.

In a speech at the rink after 1 a.m. Tuesday, Carney avoided direct reference to a minority or majority, but thanked voters and Liberal campaigners for helping elect a “strong government” and added he will work “constructively with all parties” in Parliament.

“My government will work for and with everyone,” he said.��

With victory in hand, Carney will now assume full responsibility for confronting the crisis that much of his campaign was about. Over the past five weeks, the Liberal leader portrayed himself as a measured and deliberate economic manager who answered the call of a generational emergency with a belligerent American president intent on erasing Canadian sovereignty.

Having been elected to lead a new government, Carney said he would “sit down” with U.S. President Donald Trump to “discuss the future economic and security relationship” and pursue an agenda to build infrastructure and resource projects to bolster the Canadian economy.��

“The coming days and months will be challenging, and they will call for some sacrifices, but we will share those sacrifices by supporting our workers and our businesses,” he promised.��

“We will fight back with everything we have to get the best deal for Canada.”

The Liberals entered the final stretch of the campaign with their spirits buoyed at the prospect of keeping power. On Saturday, at a large rally in a plane hangar at Pearson airport, several candidates seeking re-election expressed an almost surprised sense of optimism that their party was on the cusp of winning. Other campaign insiders told the Star they were expecting to win, even as they said they weren’t taking anything for granted.

Monday’s win was the tangible result of how the political landscape had transformed with Carney as Liberal leader amidst a surge of national spirit in the face of Trump’s trade tariffs and annexation threats.

For more than a year, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives had dominated public opinion polls with relentless attacks on the Trudeau government over rising housing costs, crime, and climate policies like the national consumer price on carbon.

Then, with a revolt erupting in his caucus, Trudeau announced in early January that he would resign, triggering a leadership race that saw Carney finally enter the political arena after years of rumour and speculation, and replace Trudeau as prime minister on March 14 after a smashing victory in a shortened Liberal leadership contest.

In the weeks since, Carney put his stamp on the party, gradually improving his French and loosening his manner with jokes about his preference to focus on technical policy details.

“You’re supposed to campaign in poetry and govern in prose,” he said late Sunday night in Saanichton, B.C., where he held his final event of the campaign before returning to Ottawa.

“Some members of the media will know I sort of campaign in prose,” he said, laughing.

“Imagine … I’m going to govern in econometrics.”

Before calling the April 28 election, he eliminated the consumer carbon price and pledged to scrap the Trudeau government’s planned capital gains tax hike. Carney promised his Liberal policy plan — which includes $129 billion in new spending and tax cuts — would spur hundreds of billions of dollars in economic growth to strengthen Canada and withstand the upheaval of its commercial relationship with the U.S.

Indeed, Carney campaigned equally — if not more — against the U.S. president as he did against the personality and policies of his main rival, the Conservative leader. That didn’t prevent Liberals at the election night party in Ottawa, however, from cheering as the large TV showed Poilievre trailing in his riding early Tuesday morning.��

But at rally after rally in the final days of the contest, Carney leaned on hockey analogies and his economists’ credentials to vow that Canada can “win” the trade war with Trump that threatens billions of dollars in economic activity and thousands of Canadian jobs. He portrayed Trump’s U.S. as a hostile power, insisting Canadians must take it seriously when the American president talks about erasing the border and making Canada part of his country — a desire Trump repeated on social media as Canadians went to the polls on Monday.

This weekend, Carney said he believes Trump wants to use the “economic pressure” of his trade tariffs to integrate Canada into the U.S. so it can access this country’s land, water and resources.

“America is trying to break us so that they can own us,” he told a crowd in Edmonton during his final, cross-country blitz from Hamilton to Victoria, B.C. on Sunday.

“Just like in hockey, we will win.”