Overheard in the backrooms of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign team:
“Carney? Crap!”
“Relax, Jenni. We’ve got plenty of fodder to work with.”
Those folks in the Conservative Party of Canada are quite right about that. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister-designate, has some obvious faults. He was not forthcoming in the days leading up to his landslide election as leader of the federal Liberal Party. He did not lie, but he did not fully disclose his role in moving Brookfield Asset Management’s head office from Montreal to New York. Oops.
He once forcefully advocated for a carbon tax, abandoning the idea only when he declared his Liberal leadership bid.
“Careful, everybody, because sneaky Mark Carney’s going to try and pull a fast one on you,” Poilievre told a rally last week, before Carney was even officially declared the enemy. Poilievre suggested Carney would get through the election and then introduce an “even bigger shadow carbon tax.”
Carney is also, arguably, a political neophyte, never having run for office. This seeming liability must be weighed against the fact that he has worked closely with politicians since then-prime minister Stephen Harper appointed him as governor of the Bank of Canada in 2011.
But if the mood is anxious in Conservative backrooms, it is no less fraught in the Liberal war room. After all, the Grits are hoping to achieve the seemingly impossible—overcoming a 20-point poll deficit and sending the memory of one of the most unpopular prime ministers in modern history to the boneyard of broken dreams.
As it happens, I also caught a couple of comments leaking from behind the Liberals’ closed doors.
“Are we sure about this guy? I mean, he’s a glorified banker, for goodness’ sake.”
“Chill, Andrew. Look at who he’s running against.”
Yes, it’s true. Pierre Poilievre, the man who just months ago appeared to have a lock on a Conservative majority, has his own liabilities. A career politician, he is—in Carney’s words—an “ideologue who worships free markets even though he’s never made a payroll.”
Even before Carney became leader, the Conservative lead over the Liberals had shrunk to just three points: 37 to 34 per cent. That suggests the party’s surge was driven more by hatred for Justin Trudeau than genuine enthusiasm for Poilievre’s “Canada is broken” rhetoric and endless calls to “Axe the Tax.”
Carney could make things worse for the Conservatives. A Léger Marketing poll before Sunday’s Liberal love-in suggested Carney’s Liberals would overtake them: 40 per cent to 38 per cent.
Meanwhile, Canadians have mixed feelings about Poilievre, seeing him as both a strong negotiator and a potential capitulator to the madman south of the border. In an Ipsos poll last week, 31 per cent said they believe Poilievre would yield to U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands. Only six per cent felt the same way about Carney.
Carney was particularly pointed—if somewhat unfair—in his attack on Poilievre in his acceptance speech Sunday.
“A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him,” Carney declared in distinctly un-banker-like language.
So, get ready for an elbows-up, trash-talking slugfest in the upcoming federal election.
At some point, all federal elections begin to feel like they are the “most important in a generation,” as they are often declared. This one actually is.
Canadians, so recently divided between the Freedom Convoy set and progressives, are suddenly unified in fury against Trump’s unjustified tariffs. Many also fear his implied threat to annex Canada as an unwilling 51st state. Most of us are ready to do whatever is required to ensure this doesn’t happen—even, increasingly, taking up arms.
We are looking for a leader with experience, finesse and smarts. Someone who has faced daunting challenges and overcome them. Someone who may be able to manage Trump’s erratic, ego-driven moods.
This is where the confidence question comes in. Poilievre may be quick with well-scripted jabs, but can he think on his feet against a narcissist as mercurial as Trump? Would Carney, on the other hand, be able to stand firm while also persuading Trump to back off his irrational attacks on Canada, once his firmest ally?
On these crucial questions, Canadians will cast their ballots. Choosing Carney would mean giving a hall pass to a party that stumbled from one fiasco to the next under Trudeau. That’s a tall ask.
But Carney has real-world experience—not just helping Canada weather the COVID-19 recession, but also steering the United Kingdom through Brexit. He’s been there, done that. He might not be our perfect Captain Canada, but he might just get the job done.
The coming weeks will test his mettle against the well-oiled Conservative attack machine. By election day, we should have a clearer idea of just how tough he is. Only then will we know who is best suited to wear the cape with the big S on it.
My hunch? It will be Carney.
Doug Firby is an award-winning editorial writer with over four decades of experience working for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Ontario and western Canada. Previously, he served as Editorial Page Editor at the Calgary Herald.
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