For most Canadians, Mark Carney is the country's new prime minister. For Rosa Wah-Shee, he’s a little more than that. He’s also the kid she used to babysit.
"He was a good baby," she said. "He didn't fuss a lot.
"He was just sleeping most of the time, having his naps, being looked after, but quite aware of what was going on."
Wah-Shee, a Tlicho citizen, met the Carneys in Fort Smith, NWT, the new prime minister's birthplace in 1965. She had been attending residential school there, and was about to return home to what is now Behchoko to visit her family for the summer when Carney's father made her an unexpected but generous offer.
"Mr. Carney came up to me, and he said, 'Rosa, can you babysit for us this summer?' My wife needs help," she remembers. "I said, 'I'm only 13.' He said 'that's all right, we just need help around the house, and we're going to pay you. How would you like to work for us?'
"I said, okay, and that was it."
Wah-Shee loved working for the Carneys, and tending to Mark and his two older siblings. She recalls their household being "so lively."
"It was summer, so the children were off and outside, and I was always with them because [their parents] didn't want them to get hurt or anything," she said. "I'd play games with them, and then when we were inside, they were just as active, but more quiet.
"They would do all kinds of drawings and paintings," she added. "It was just so nice... I was so proud to be part of that family's life."
Mark, she said, was a particular pleasure to be around, even at such a young age. He was curious, she remembers, and enjoyed being around his family and watching all the activity in the house, whether it was from his crib or his high-chair.
"He just wanted to know what was going on," she said. "We all ate together and Mark, he would want to see what was going on. He would just look around and see what's going on with everybody, and we'd put him where he could see what was going on."
The Carneys did not stay in Fort Smith for very long, ultimately packing up their things to move to Edmonton, where the future prime minister's father had gotten a new job. Their departure was hard for Wah-Shee to comprehend at the time.
"I didn't have any idea about Edmonton," she recalled. "I had no knowledge about university. I mean, the whole idea of this whole family moving was something that I didn't understand."
Once the Carneys had left town, Wah-Shee never saw any of them again.
That is until Mark's face began appearing in the press.
"I've seen magazines where he was on the cover page, and I'd read of all the things that he's accomplished," she said. "I was amazed and I kept thinking 'there's the baby I used to babysit'."
To see him become the prime minister was a thrill, but not a shock.
"To see people recognizing him as being the next prime minister, I think he did everything to achieve that position," she said. "I am over the moon about this."
Wah-Shee is very engaged in the issues that matter in the North, pointing to medical travel, inflation, housing, climate change and homelessness as some the region's biggest challenges. While she has not seen Mark since he was a baby, she is optimistic that his Northern roots will make him more inclined to help Northerners deal with those issues.
"I believe having been born and raised in the North, he is in a better position to understand the issues in the remote communities, the cost of living and inflation that we have to deal with, and the medical issues that we have here in the North," she said. "I think he would better understand us and our issues — especially the Indigenous population — and find ways that he can better help with the issues that we have here.
"I think he is the best man that could be the prime minister because he was born in the North."
She also believes the new PM is well positioned to deal with the "the big issue" of "Mr. Trump" and his international tariffs.
"He's been to Harvard, he's been to university," she said. "He knows about economics, banking.
"I mean, goodness, those are all the same things that everybody's got to deal with."
Today, Wah-Shee — who now has adult children of her own and is retired from the public sector — calls Yellowknife home. While it may be unlikely that she ever crosses paths with her former babysitting charge again, it is not outside the realm of possibility, as he has made visits to the NWT since his family left.
If she ever does have the chance to see him again, she knows exactly what she would tell him.
"I would say I am so proud of him — very proud of him," she said. "I told my sons, 'I used to babysit him,' and they go 'really?' I said 'yeah.'
"I am so proud of him. I can't say anything more than that."
