Mark Carney has unlimited possibilities, but Liberals shouldn’t assume he’s the solution to their woes

OTTAWA—It’s always a mistake to underestimate Mark Carney. In 2008, he was elevated straight out of the bureaucratic ranks of the Finance Department to the prestigious, high-profile governorship of the Bank of Canada, becoming at age 42 the youngest central bank governor in the G20. Five years later, in what was considered a coup for the United Kingdom, Carney agreed to lead the Bank of England, making him the only person to have run the central bank of two different countries. In 2011, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the former investment banker became the chief world banking watchdog as head of the Financial Stability Board tasked with preventing another banking meltdown. Back in Canada since 2020, Carney is the United Nations special envoy for climate action, and a senior board member at both Brookfield Asset Management and Bloomberg. With the polls showing that Canadians seem ready to accept almost anyone as national leader to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, long-standing speculation about Carney’s political ambitions has taken on a new tempo. Bilingual, with western Canadian roots, highly respected internationally, and an expert on the perennial voter concern of the economy, he would seem to be an obvious candidate for a high-level political post. He has no political track record, but is used to controversy at the highest levels of public affairs. Discussing the 2008-09 financial collapse in a speech to some of the world’s richest and most influential people in London in 2014, he said: “Perhaps the most severe blow to public trust was the revelation that there were scores of too-big-to-fail institutions operating at the heart of finance. Bankers made enormous sums in the run-up to the crisis and were often well compensated after it hit. In turn, taxpayers picked up the tab for their failures.” In the U.K. in advance of the 2016 Brexit referendum, Carney was blasted for his (correct) assessment of the economic risks of leaving the European Union. While Bank of Canada governor, he kicked up a public storm by saying Canada’s corporate sector was sitting on some $500-billion in “dead money” that should be invested to strengthen the economy. He can expect plenty more controversy if he enters the increasingly toxic Commons fray. For one thing, Carney exemplifies the international movers and shakers who nourish the conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum, which would put him in the crosshairs of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s onslaught against the supposedly evil elite. While Carney can be charming and down to earth (what other central banker ever quoted Yogi Berra to the Commons Finance committee?), he also does not happily put up with fools: a potential liability in political life. And he is certainly not attuned to the low-level, thuggish discourse dominating today’s public discourse. Also, Carney’s world-leading commitment to climate action and putting a price on pollution could break either way for the Liberals outside Quebec. At least for the moment, a large portion of Canadians seems to have subjugated their worries about forest fires and floods to their easily aroused dislike of taxes and (in the case of the carbon tax, misguided) affordability concerns. The Conservatives have had little trouble turning the tax into a political albatross, and Carney has already taken issue with Poilievre’s vow to kill the carbon tax without spelling out an alternative approach. “You have to have a plan, not slogans,” he told The Globe and Mail. “We need to continue to raise the bar here in Canada and if you know a party is coming in front of Canadians, whenever the next election is, without a plan, with just slogans, that’s irresponsible.” In the political arena, Carney would have to try to draw on his credibility and global stature in hopes of turning Poilievre’s fact-twisting attacks on the Liberals back against the unworldly Conservative Parliamentarian. And perhaps he could convince Canadians, as he told The Globe, that failing to tackle global warming would hurt the Canadian economy, jobs, and households. But the carbon levy is a very tough sell—one the Liberals have been promoting without much success for 15 years. Carney can probably bide his time. Trudeau has insisted he will lead his party in the next election nearly two years from now. If Trudeau sticks around, Carney would probably have to get off the fence and seek a Commons seat in 2025 if he is serious about politics. But he might have to face the prospect of winding up on the opposition benches for some years, sacrificing both income and influence. If Trudeau quits, then all bets are off. But it has to be said that even the whiz kid from Fort Smith, N.W.T.—if by some stroke of luck he ended up as Liberal leader—would be a very long shot to turn around the Liberals’ fortunes at this point. Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times. The Hill Times

Mark Carney has unlimited possibilities, but Liberals shouldn’t assume he’s the solution to their woes

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Mark Carney has unlimited possibilities, but Liberals shouldn’t assume he’s the solution to their woes

While Carney can be charming and down to earth, he is certainly not attuned to the low-level, thuggish discourse dominating today’s public discourse.

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