Following the In The Shadows Cabinet of people around Prime Minister is instructive to how things are playing out.
Mr. Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group predicted long ago that the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump had raised the slumbering nationalist streak of Canadians and that Canadian politicians would take advantage of it by putting up a fight before the election. Mr. Bremmer concluded that he "expected Canada would quietly fold shortly after the vote to ensure that the ongoing negotiations with the US remain functional."
If Ms. Gerson wonders whether Carney really believed in the elbows up narrative of the election campaign, well there's the answer. In fact Carney was removing counter tariffs imposed by Trudeau during the campaign and most of them have been quietly removed since, but not before reeling in a billion or two from Canadians unfortunate enough to buy US goods while the tariffs were still in place.
Canadians settled on a risk averse technocrat to lead us through the wilderness of the Trump Administration, failing to consider that bankers are not hard wired to take chances or stand tall above the bulwarks waiting to become Donald Trump cannon fodder.
The early going seems to justify the old sentiment that the Liberals are great at getting elected, governing...not so much.
"Mr. Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group predicted long ago that the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump had raised the slumbering nationalist streak of Canadians and that Canadian politicians would take advantage of it by putting up a fight before the election. Mr. Bremmer concluded that he "expected Canada would quietly fold shortly after the vote to ensure that the ongoing negotiations with the US remain functional.""
I pointed this article out to many people during the election but it fell on deaf ears. This was 100% Carney's view and plan. The rhetoric was obvious garbage. I'm not even sure this approach is wrong, but it is the opposite of the BS that got the Boomers frothing like lunatics at those ridiculous "elbows up" rallies.
As a ‘Boomer’ who wouldn’t vote for reckless spending Liberals and knowing few other Boomers who would I want a polling firm to determine where these Boomers reside, because it isn’t in the West.
Spot on, Jen. I agree with you. I was stunned when Carney apologized-have to admit that I thought it wasn’t true at first. My worry is growing that Carney doesn’t get why he was elected. We need a principled leader, not an economist, right now.
All I care about is results, and the ad did not help make Canadian’s lives better. I don’t need government to be my moral inspiration, they need to provide infrastructure and make laws and regulations that protect the interest of Canadians, and enforce those laws and regulations.
Ok, let’s play with that idea. If all you’re looking for is an easy life and a government that provides infrastructure, laws, and regulation, then why be Canadian at all? What if someone makes the argument that you’d be richer as an American; that all your metrics around regulation and laws would be the same or better. Why bother fighting at all? Why be a Canadian as opposed to any other thing? JG
Indeed. That last question about 'why be Canadian' should not be rhetorical but seriously and deeply considered. I wonder how many could come up with a compelling, rational, evidence-based answer? I haven't heard or read one in the last decade or more and I'm always looking but I am inundated with emotive, delusional, and empty rhetoric recalling of past glories that (apparently) can never resurface as modern policy or made manifest through achievements because, you know, 'nice'. Now that Canada has successfully rewritten our history into being a genocidal criminal people and all current and future development of natural resources is a crime against humanity, why... the future looks golden!
I too wonder how many could come up with such an answer. I'd bet 8-out-of-10 would land on some version of, "we're not like those yucky Americans because - pick at least one - health care/guns/obnoxious/crass".
Trump II should have served as the much-needed kick in our ass to get our act together. Instead we have spent almost a full year fretting about what he says/does despite the fact that he is totally unpredictable and therefore impossible to "manage". It sounds crazy to say this about the President of the USA because obviously his actions impact us but, due to his unpredictability/volatility, he is, in essence, reduced to nothing more than a distraction. Should we kiss his ass or have our elbows up? It is impossible to know!! And yet, hardly a week goes by without fretting about him through this lens.
The only way to deal with him is to make this country economically strong. Yet this fretting has gone on for almost a year and as far as I can tell we are still no closer to getting our natural resources out of the ground than we were on the fateful night Junior put his foot in his mouth at Mara-Lago. And WRT Supply Management, the lowest of impossibly low-hanging fruit, we continue to (seemingly PROUDLY!!!!) cling to it like a man thrown a 50 pound boulder in the middle of the ocean. It is to weep.
Right now Canadians need to eliminate the countless laws and regulations that are harmful to the interests of Canadians, before they even think of new ones. Then look to the civil service jobs that can be eliminated as a result.
Oops I got caught in the indent trap. I meant to reply to Trevor’s point not yours. I agree with your point. But to me being Canadian (or anything else) is a state of mind and a shared value system.
Have we given Carney enough time yet to prove he's not who he (and mostly his handlers and the media) told us he was?
Do we realize now that electing an individual who ditched Canada for better opportunities 10 years earlier, with no political record, vague promises, and no clear idea how he would or would not govern, might have been a bad idea?
Oops.
Well sounds like we are about to be stuck with him for at least another 3.5 years thanks to "anything to win" Liberal ethos and spineless Red Tory floor crossers.
‘Red’ Tories were always socially progressive while being fiscally conservative. Don’t see how this translates to supporting a very socially progressive and over spending Liberal government.
That's a generous interpretation. Many are actual and wannabe career politicians with no strong opinions who will just go with whatever makes getting elected easiest. This is a natural fit for Liberals because that's sort of their central philosophy. But sometimes you can't clinch that Liberal nomination or live somewhere that having a blue sign with your face on it is the easier path to victory.
This is why I subscribe to the line: to read AngryJen's™ acerbic and oh-so pointed criticism our complacency and risk-aversion.
And also to know that the Trekkie conversion is complete. When Jen makes reference to Trek's Kobayashi Maru all by herself, we all know what's really going on.
We'll agree to disagree. Trump is nuts, and any deal signed with him is about as meaningful as Hitler and Stalin's non-aggression pact. However, why not attempt to lower the temperature? The ad accomplished more than Doug could have hoped for. But did it help relations? No, not really. I think Carney played politics, which is what we hired him to do. He played the sucker with an ego-appeasing, insincere apology to lower the temperature. Politics is a game. The long game is better.
Great column. I’m no fan of Ford exactly but if he were the federal Con leader, I would vote for him in an election. He knows how to stand up to a bully.
Do you live in Ontario? Doug Ford is mostly an incompetent disaster who only stays in power due to running effectively unopposed against parties that split the remainder of the vote almost perfectly in half. That and the fact that the media don't care who wins in Ontario so don't apply the Liberal = good Con = bad narrative. Not that Doug is a conservative 90% of the time.
He can say about Trump whatever his pollsters think will play best with voters because he doesn't have to actually negotiate with him. Mark Carney is pulled in two directions on that particular problem, as would whoever might be Canadian PM including Ford in the unlikely event he gained that office - appease the voters by talking tough, while appeasing Trump so he doesn't do too much damage before he hopefully gets politically neutered at the end of 2026.
Check out the frantic narrative during any national election that appears on the front page of every newspaper that isn't explicitly right-wing, and all the TV news. Excusing or forgetting every example of Liberal corruption and mismanagement and blowing up every minor CPC gaffe into a disqualifying event. It's almost like they are trying to preserve millions of dollars in subsidies or something.
Media coverage of Ontario elections are basically "this is boring and dumb, who cares about platforms, they are all bad, vote however you want".
Oh the Ontario Liberals would be even worse. They would be Doug Ford with different scandals and even more results-free spending. The NDP would be an extinction level event for Ontario's economy. There are truly no good options.
Carney is far from the only leader who has apologized to, flattered or otherwise kowtowed (or seemed to, in the moment) in the face of tantrums emanating from the shambolic White House. It's become a recognisable and likely understandable ritual. Apologise, and/or flatter and/or back down (or appear to do so), and try to get back on track. Zelenskyy is perhaps the model for doing this, not because he wanted to, but because it's the only way to deal with Trump.
I'm not precisely defending Carney, and agree that Ford, despite his many failings, is really the one who deserves an apology in this specific instance. I just don't think any other party leader in the PM's shoes would have done differently when it came down to it.
P.S. There are many reasons to be unhappy with Carney / the federal liberals, but until the Opposition gets itself a capable leader, things aren't going to get better.
Two things can be true at the same time. Mark Carney is a failure on the Canada US file and Doug Ford needlessly and EXPENSIVELY irritated not only Donald Trump, but the Reagan Foundation and Americans who don't appreciate this kind of meddling.
Doug Ford may be a little impulsive, but "meddling"? Hardly. Quoting a revered past-President at them is just showing how far they have strayed from sanity. Throwing a hissy fit in response just shows that "you can't handle the truth!".
Carney misrepresented himself to the public during the election and then predictably caved. Apologizing was just miserable and unnecessary even given the realities of the need to negotiate and 'rag the puck' which is probably the only viable option.
Ford shouldn't be engaged in foreign policy at all, and in doing so went too far in playing to his fake "Captain Canada" image for his voters.
I agree with your assessment of Ford's motivations. But those motivations aren't happening in a vacuum. If Carney has failed to meet his own campaign rhetoric, then he's created a space for another political leader to fill. You can't blame Ford for, well, filling it. JG
Carney fulfilling his campaign rhetoric would have had consequences. Ford thought he could fill that space as much as he wanted, without those consequences. Everyone found out otherwise.
It is time we all rewatched the Vocational Guidance Counsellor skit from Monty Python and put Carney in the chair of the accountant who wants to be a lion tamer but has no idea what a lion is!!
Following the In The Shadows Cabinet of people around Prime Minister is instructive to how things are playing out.
Mr. Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group predicted long ago that the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump had raised the slumbering nationalist streak of Canadians and that Canadian politicians would take advantage of it by putting up a fight before the election. Mr. Bremmer concluded that he "expected Canada would quietly fold shortly after the vote to ensure that the ongoing negotiations with the US remain functional."
If Ms. Gerson wonders whether Carney really believed in the elbows up narrative of the election campaign, well there's the answer. In fact Carney was removing counter tariffs imposed by Trudeau during the campaign and most of them have been quietly removed since, but not before reeling in a billion or two from Canadians unfortunate enough to buy US goods while the tariffs were still in place.
Canadians settled on a risk averse technocrat to lead us through the wilderness of the Trump Administration, failing to consider that bankers are not hard wired to take chances or stand tall above the bulwarks waiting to become Donald Trump cannon fodder.
The early going seems to justify the old sentiment that the Liberals are great at getting elected, governing...not so much.
I was willing to give him a period of grace and the benefit of the doubt - and I don't regret that - but this, yes. JG
"Mr. Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group predicted long ago that the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump had raised the slumbering nationalist streak of Canadians and that Canadian politicians would take advantage of it by putting up a fight before the election. Mr. Bremmer concluded that he "expected Canada would quietly fold shortly after the vote to ensure that the ongoing negotiations with the US remain functional.""
I pointed this article out to many people during the election but it fell on deaf ears. This was 100% Carney's view and plan. The rhetoric was obvious garbage. I'm not even sure this approach is wrong, but it is the opposite of the BS that got the Boomers frothing like lunatics at those ridiculous "elbows up" rallies.
As a ‘Boomer’ who wouldn’t vote for reckless spending Liberals and knowing few other Boomers who would I want a polling firm to determine where these Boomers reside, because it isn’t in the West.
All over the GTA!
Can we stop calling Carney a Conservative PM now also. This budget was just more LPC rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. “Elbows up” my ass!
Spot on, Jen. I agree with you. I was stunned when Carney apologized-have to admit that I thought it wasn’t true at first. My worry is growing that Carney doesn’t get why he was elected. We need a principled leader, not an economist, right now.
Ms Gerson, i dont subscribe to only hear commentary i agree with, but here you've channelled my views to a T. Felt good to read.
All I care about is results, and the ad did not help make Canadian’s lives better. I don’t need government to be my moral inspiration, they need to provide infrastructure and make laws and regulations that protect the interest of Canadians, and enforce those laws and regulations.
Ok, let’s play with that idea. If all you’re looking for is an easy life and a government that provides infrastructure, laws, and regulation, then why be Canadian at all? What if someone makes the argument that you’d be richer as an American; that all your metrics around regulation and laws would be the same or better. Why bother fighting at all? Why be a Canadian as opposed to any other thing? JG
Indeed. That last question about 'why be Canadian' should not be rhetorical but seriously and deeply considered. I wonder how many could come up with a compelling, rational, evidence-based answer? I haven't heard or read one in the last decade or more and I'm always looking but I am inundated with emotive, delusional, and empty rhetoric recalling of past glories that (apparently) can never resurface as modern policy or made manifest through achievements because, you know, 'nice'. Now that Canada has successfully rewritten our history into being a genocidal criminal people and all current and future development of natural resources is a crime against humanity, why... the future looks golden!
I too wonder how many could come up with such an answer. I'd bet 8-out-of-10 would land on some version of, "we're not like those yucky Americans because - pick at least one - health care/guns/obnoxious/crass".
Trump II should have served as the much-needed kick in our ass to get our act together. Instead we have spent almost a full year fretting about what he says/does despite the fact that he is totally unpredictable and therefore impossible to "manage". It sounds crazy to say this about the President of the USA because obviously his actions impact us but, due to his unpredictability/volatility, he is, in essence, reduced to nothing more than a distraction. Should we kiss his ass or have our elbows up? It is impossible to know!! And yet, hardly a week goes by without fretting about him through this lens.
The only way to deal with him is to make this country economically strong. Yet this fretting has gone on for almost a year and as far as I can tell we are still no closer to getting our natural resources out of the ground than we were on the fateful night Junior put his foot in his mouth at Mara-Lago. And WRT Supply Management, the lowest of impossibly low-hanging fruit, we continue to (seemingly PROUDLY!!!!) cling to it like a man thrown a 50 pound boulder in the middle of the ocean. It is to weep.
Right now Canadians need to eliminate the countless laws and regulations that are harmful to the interests of Canadians, before they even think of new ones. Then look to the civil service jobs that can be eliminated as a result.
I completely agree, but that's just evading the original point. JG
Oops I got caught in the indent trap. I meant to reply to Trevor’s point not yours. I agree with your point. But to me being Canadian (or anything else) is a state of mind and a shared value system.
INDENTS *shakes fist* JG
Have we given Carney enough time yet to prove he's not who he (and mostly his handlers and the media) told us he was?
Do we realize now that electing an individual who ditched Canada for better opportunities 10 years earlier, with no political record, vague promises, and no clear idea how he would or would not govern, might have been a bad idea?
Oops.
Well sounds like we are about to be stuck with him for at least another 3.5 years thanks to "anything to win" Liberal ethos and spineless Red Tory floor crossers.
‘Red’ Tories were always socially progressive while being fiscally conservative. Don’t see how this translates to supporting a very socially progressive and over spending Liberal government.
That's a generous interpretation. Many are actual and wannabe career politicians with no strong opinions who will just go with whatever makes getting elected easiest. This is a natural fit for Liberals because that's sort of their central philosophy. But sometimes you can't clinch that Liberal nomination or live somewhere that having a blue sign with your face on it is the easier path to victory.
This is why I subscribe to the line: to read AngryJen's™ acerbic and oh-so pointed criticism our complacency and risk-aversion.
And also to know that the Trekkie conversion is complete. When Jen makes reference to Trek's Kobayashi Maru all by herself, we all know what's really going on.
Wasn't me! Was just happy to see it.
We'll agree to disagree. Trump is nuts, and any deal signed with him is about as meaningful as Hitler and Stalin's non-aggression pact. However, why not attempt to lower the temperature? The ad accomplished more than Doug could have hoped for. But did it help relations? No, not really. I think Carney played politics, which is what we hired him to do. He played the sucker with an ego-appeasing, insincere apology to lower the temperature. Politics is a game. The long game is better.
Trump never apologizes because he thinks apologies are for losers. Carney has put a big "Kick Me" sign on our back. From now on, Trump will oblige.
Great column Jen
The Carneyage will continue until voters Poilievre (pronounced pull-the- lever).
I laughed in dad pun. JG
Great column. I’m no fan of Ford exactly but if he were the federal Con leader, I would vote for him in an election. He knows how to stand up to a bully.
None of these other clowns do.
Do you live in Ontario? Doug Ford is mostly an incompetent disaster who only stays in power due to running effectively unopposed against parties that split the remainder of the vote almost perfectly in half. That and the fact that the media don't care who wins in Ontario so don't apply the Liberal = good Con = bad narrative. Not that Doug is a conservative 90% of the time.
He can say about Trump whatever his pollsters think will play best with voters because he doesn't have to actually negotiate with him. Mark Carney is pulled in two directions on that particular problem, as would whoever might be Canadian PM including Ford in the unlikely event he gained that office - appease the voters by talking tough, while appeasing Trump so he doesn't do too much damage before he hopefully gets politically neutered at the end of 2026.
I for one am glad that the Ontario media doesn't apply the "Liberal = good, Con = bad" narrative. Although I'm not sure that's actually the case.
Check out the frantic narrative during any national election that appears on the front page of every newspaper that isn't explicitly right-wing, and all the TV news. Excusing or forgetting every example of Liberal corruption and mismanagement and blowing up every minor CPC gaffe into a disqualifying event. It's almost like they are trying to preserve millions of dollars in subsidies or something.
Media coverage of Ontario elections are basically "this is boring and dumb, who cares about platforms, they are all bad, vote however you want".
Oh the Ontario Liberals would be even worse. They would be Doug Ford with different scandals and even more results-free spending. The NDP would be an extinction level event for Ontario's economy. There are truly no good options.
Carney is far from the only leader who has apologized to, flattered or otherwise kowtowed (or seemed to, in the moment) in the face of tantrums emanating from the shambolic White House. It's become a recognisable and likely understandable ritual. Apologise, and/or flatter and/or back down (or appear to do so), and try to get back on track. Zelenskyy is perhaps the model for doing this, not because he wanted to, but because it's the only way to deal with Trump.
I'm not precisely defending Carney, and agree that Ford, despite his many failings, is really the one who deserves an apology in this specific instance. I just don't think any other party leader in the PM's shoes would have done differently when it came down to it.
P.S. There are many reasons to be unhappy with Carney / the federal liberals, but until the Opposition gets itself a capable leader, things aren't going to get better.
Spot on, Jen. Carney’s constant sucking up to Trump makes me want to gag. The apology was sickening.
Two things can be true at the same time. Mark Carney is a failure on the Canada US file and Doug Ford needlessly and EXPENSIVELY irritated not only Donald Trump, but the Reagan Foundation and Americans who don't appreciate this kind of meddling.
Doug Ford may be a little impulsive, but "meddling"? Hardly. Quoting a revered past-President at them is just showing how far they have strayed from sanity. Throwing a hissy fit in response just shows that "you can't handle the truth!".
Both leaders suck.
Carney misrepresented himself to the public during the election and then predictably caved. Apologizing was just miserable and unnecessary even given the realities of the need to negotiate and 'rag the puck' which is probably the only viable option.
Ford shouldn't be engaged in foreign policy at all, and in doing so went too far in playing to his fake "Captain Canada" image for his voters.
I agree with your assessment of Ford's motivations. But those motivations aren't happening in a vacuum. If Carney has failed to meet his own campaign rhetoric, then he's created a space for another political leader to fill. You can't blame Ford for, well, filling it. JG
Carney fulfilling his campaign rhetoric would have had consequences. Ford thought he could fill that space as much as he wanted, without those consequences. Everyone found out otherwise.
Lead. Follow or get out of the way.
It is time we all rewatched the Vocational Guidance Counsellor skit from Monty Python and put Carney in the chair of the accountant who wants to be a lion tamer but has no idea what a lion is!!