Jen Gerson: I like Mark Carney

That may not be a great sign for the guy.

Although I can't remember the exact time or the place, I do recall the first time I ever heard Jim Prentice give a speech. It was shortly before he was about to enter Alberta political life, to save the sclerotic Progressive Conservatives from a rabble of populists after the messy tenure of Alison Redford.

Don't ask me to repeat anything specific Prentice said, but I was struck by his tone and stature. This was a man with a clear-eyed understanding of the province's problems. He was something I had rarely witnessed in Canadian politics. He was serious.

And then a thought landed in my brain unbidden, like an exotic and fluorescent insect alighting upon my arm. Repulsive, certainly, but too beautiful to kill on contact.

"Man, that's a guy I could see myself working for. I like him," the bug said, to my horror. Survival instincts took over. I murdered the notion in my mind, and good thing.

Prentice, God rest his soul, did become premier of Alberta — for a short while —and while in power demonstrated the political nous of a chicken nugget. The Progressive Conservatives were soon decimated.

I learned the most valuable lesson from that period of political reporting, one I try to carry with me unto this very day: Never, never let one's personal feelings about an individual candidate corrupt one's political analysis. And if you think about it, this is a very important lesson to learn.

I am not a normal person. That which appeals to me is very unlikely to find purchase with sane, feeling voters who hold ordinary jobs and live lives filled with meaningful human connections and real, not-political conversations.

I was thinking about this as I watched Mark Carney announce his intention to run as Liberal leader in Edmonton on Thursday.
Carney is a serious man. He has a real CV and a long list of meaningful accomplishments. He's a man who seems to understand that the “good old times are over.” He's a man who has navigated several international crises — as he was keen to point out. He's a man who despises the excesses of both the right and the left. He’s a man who is is focused on building Canada's economy.

He's a man who has correctly identified one of the Conservatives' core weaknesses, their tendency to channel legitimate anger and grievance into thin slogans that offer few substantive plans toward the kinds of significant changes that this country will be required to make. The fact that Carney is making this critique while coming to the fore without offering any substantive plans of his own is only to be expected considering the timeline’s he’s working with, I suppose.

Regardless, Carney is giving Jim Prentice Energy. Jean Charest Energy. Jeb! Energy.

I like him.

Not that I got close enough to know for certain.

You see, I couldn't, for the life of me, actually get any confirmation about exactly where or when his campaign launch was happening on Thursday. Over the course of two days, I was told three distinct times from three separate sources; 9:30 a.m, 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m. and then 3 p.m.

I clicked on his official website when it went live. It doesn't say much, except to elicit email addresses and names. It has a black background. Black backgrounds indicate seriousness. But, also, Mark Carney is smiling.

I sent an email to his media campaign asking where Carney's launch would be streaming.

"For planning purposes, yes, we plan on live streaming the event on socials," wrote an anonymous member of his team.

Um, what time, I asked?

1 p.m. MST.

Yeah, and where? What if I'd like to attend?

This request was met with radio silence. I managed to figure out where the event was being held via other sources, but with two young children, I couldn't justify a three hour drive north to the rumoured site of a leadership campaign launch, so I decided to watch from home. I don't know whether I was justified in that decision, but it didn't entirely surprise me when several right wing independent journalists were escorted out of the launch, so maybe I was getting the runaround not because the campaign is naturally dysfunctional, but rather because I really wasn't welcome.

If one of Carney's campaign managers could let me know, it'd be appreciated — I don't know who to ask because there appears to be more than one person vying for the title.

I don't know, man; I understand that Carney really was raised in Edmonton, but why launch a campaign there if half the province's journalistic outlets are declared too deplorable to be worthy of attending?

For that matter, if Carney wants to present himself as a strong supporter of Canada, a defender of our sovereignty in the face of America's re-articulated expansionist ambitions, why did he preempt his leadership launch with an appearance on The Daily Show? What message are we to take from this: that Carney is well liked and respected by the American political milieu that was roundly trounced by Donald Trump?

It doesn't signal a lot of faith in Canada as a cohesive cultural concept to soft launch your political leadership campaign through a marshmallow chat with an American comedy host. (As an aside, I realize that foreigners aren't real to Americans, but I'm begging literally any television journalist on a mainstream U.S. network to stop treating our politicians like kawaii pets on loan from a northern Democrat utopia that exists only in their minds. These people can handle hard questions — even about matters that are important to an American audience; like, for example, Canada's delinquent NATO spending.)

Did Mark Carney not believe that the CBC that I presume he will be campaigning to preserve was up to the challenge of doing the first interview with him? Look, I wouldn't turn down a chat at Jon Stewart's table if I got the call, but if the best possible way to reach potential Liberal leadership voters in 2025 is to pop onto American TV, we might as well pack it in, call ourselves 51 and be done with it.

By the way, in case anyone hasn't yet pointed it out; the average age of a Daily Show audience member is 63. The audience is in steep decline, and it doesn't even air on any Canadian TV channels anymore. To watch the Carney clip, Canadians have to seek it out on Apple TV or YouTube. Usually the day after because the target demo is usually in bed by 9 p.m. MST now.

I like Jon Stewart too, by the way. Though I won't let my personal feelings allow me to ignore the fact that he hasn't led the political zeitgeist in either of our countries in more than a decade. Sigh. I miss the past, too.

Anyway, Carney did a pretty good job of trying to paint himself as a man of substance. A man of experience — all without noting that while his time running various central banks is, indeed, impressive, he doesn't actually possess any real experience in politics.

Those of us who know better than to be politicians are usually pretty quick to deride the idea of politician as profession. But being a politician is hard work. It’s arrogant to assume that one will be instantly successful in one field simply because he has been successful in another. Politics requires a set of real skills, emotional skills, hard work, thick skin; skills of presentation, communication, charisma, organization, and creativity. In Canada, it also requires passable French.

I actually suspect Carney would be a very able administrator of a complicated apparatus of state in the midst of crisis, but in order to get that chance, he's going to need to present himself in a way that will actually persuade people to vote for him. This is a problem. The most memorable moment in Carney’s launch came not from his speech, but rather when one of the elders who preceded him rambled about good old days when Laurence Decore was leading the Alberta Liberals, and the province was a sea of red not blue. She also noted that she’d never met Carney personally, and had to Google him in order to figure out who she was going to be introducing. The Alberta Liberals in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen. Great stuff.

My takeaway from his opening speech is Carney has nothing but upside. Perhaps he will hone these skills after four years in opposition. I'm sure he'll stick around for that, right? He's the guy who is committed to public service over self aggrandizement; the guy who is running into a burning fire. No way he'll bail on his commitment to helping Canada through difficult times the very moment he's trounced by Pierre Poilievre, right?

Right?

I hope not because, as I said, I like him.

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