Carney makes first Stampede visit as prime minister

Canada's new prime minister, best known as a buttoned-down banker, donned a cowboy hat and toured the stables Friday evening at the Calgary Stampede.

Over an hour-long tour winding through the rodeo grounds, Mark Carney crawled into a tank, snacked at food stations and posed for dozens of selfies, marking his first visit to the Stampede as prime minister.

"We gotta see some chuckwagons, huh," Carney said as he strolled down the Midway with an entourage of security and cameras, sampling mini doughnuts and pretzels as he made his way to the grandstand stadium for the chuckwagon races.

The Stampede visit is a long-running tradition for sitting prime ministers no matter their political stripe. But it's not guaranteed: former prime minister Justin Trudeau didn't appear at last summer's rodeo, coming as his party struggled in the polls.

One year later, the Liberals' political fortunes have flipped, with Carney leading the party to a minority government in the recent federal election. The party has two Albertans sitting in the House of Commons despite predictions the party could nab more seats in the true-blue provinces.

Wearing dark-blue jeans, a navy sport coat and cream-coloured cowboy hat, Carney was met with a warm reception on the grounds, shaking hands with surprised Stampede-goers and taking photos with employees behind food stands. He did not wear cowboy boots or a belt buckle, instead wearing brown sneakers and a thin belt.

"What are you doing here?" Carney jokingly said to a group of women on the Midway.

"What are you doing here?" one of them yelled back.

Later, as he walked on the stage before the chuckwagon races at GMC Stadium, Carney was met with a mix of boos and applause from the crowd of approximately 17,000 people.

"They're saying woo. I heard woo," the announcer said.

Carney is scheduled to attend a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning and is hosting a party fundraiser in Calgary later in the day.