Mark Carney is in! He is officially running to replace Justin Trudeau as Leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister (PM).
I am delighted. In my October 5, 2023 blog, I proposed that Mark Carney could be the kryptonite that would derail Pierre Poilievre’s bid to win the next federal election. The question now is whether or not even Carney can defeat Poilievre and save Canada from that pale imitation of Donald Trump. It’s early days, but The Tyee’s Michael Harris says that a few signs of hope are beginning to appear.
If Poilievre is elected, we can say goodbye to Canada’s Dental Care Plan. Ditto to Pharmacare. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Poilievre’s cuts to the social programs so many of us rely on will be severe and extreme. Support for diversity programs will end. All efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save planet earth from “climate armageddon” will be out the window. A commitment to environmental safeguards will no longer be a requirement for companies seeking development approvals.
Pierre Poilievre will be Stephen Harper on steroids.
For those of you who have not seen Mark Carney’s interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, I urge you to watch it now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs8St-fF0kE. I guarantee you will be very impressed. Carney leaves no doubt that he will be a breath of fresh air. I will go so far as to say that, at minimum, in this interview he comes across as one part John F. Kennedy and one part Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Bright. Cerebral. At ease.
As the former governor of the Bank of Canda and later the governor of the Bank of England, Carney has demonstrated his ability to creatively use economic levers to help navigate a country through a financial crisis. In the case of Canada, it was the 2007-2008 economic meltdown. Carney lowered interest rates, and in the process saved Canada from what would have been a catastrophe. The Canadian economy outperformed all other G7 nations during the emergency and Canada was the first G7 nation to recover.
In the case of England, it was Brexit that threatened economic disaster. Carney is widely credited with averting an economic meltdown, stabilizing the British financial system by proactively and creatively using all the economic levers at his disposal — particularly by cutting interest rates and restarting quantitative easing.
As Donald Trump has once again taken the reins as U.S. President, another financial crisis is upon us. Trump is threatening 25% tariffs on imports from Canada, and he is just getting started. Canada will be forced to respond. Our economy will suffer. Trump even suggests making Canada the 51st U.S. state, a prospect I find both ridiculous and alarming.
One makes political predictions at one’s peril, but I am going to make two:
Prediction one: Mark Carney will easily win the Liberal leadership race, and by a wide margin. His closet contender will be Crystia Freeland who will be hampered by her longstanding support for Justin Trudeau, and well as by opposition from those in the Liberal caucus who are not happy about the shrapnel she caused in the way she resigned as Minister of Finance and Deputy PM.
Prediction two: Under the leadership of Carney, the Liberals will not come fourth in the election as current polls predict. They will not come third. They will come second – making them the official opposition. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that even Carney will not be able to do the impossible and close the current 20-some-odd point gap in the opinion polls between the Liberals and the Conservatives.
I truly hope that the part of my prediction two concerning the election outcome proves to be inaccurate and that Carney wins, leaving Poilievre defeated in his bid to become Prime Minister. The fate of our country hangs in the balance.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (January 23, 2025): 427.42ppm
One year ago (January 23, 2024): 422.65ppm
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