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Matt Gurney: Carney, and FDR's 100 Days

Matt Gurney: Carney, and FDR's 100 Days

The central conceit of the election three months ago was that we faced an unprecedented crisis requiring an unprecedented response. Where is it?

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Matt Gurney
Aug 01, 2025
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Matt Gurney: Carney, and FDR's 100 Days
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt listening to news reports from the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

By: Matt Gurney

Mark Carney has been prime minister for 140 days. But if we’re going to be fair, the more important milestone is this: he was elected to his own tenure as prime minister three months ago this week. Ninety five days.

And that three-month mark is something I keep circling back to. I’ve already written about it for The Hill Times. I dedicated the lion’s share of my most recent On The Line episode to the topic. But it’s still rattling around in my head. And I think that might be because the three-month mark overlaps with one of my summer hobbies: reading presidential biographies.

I started during COVID, with a mammoth three-volume bio of Theodore Roosevelt, and have, as time permits, been working my way forward ever since. This summer’s subject is Theodore’s cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, who served from 1933 until his death in office in 1945. I’m reading Jean Edward Smith’s 2007 biography, and I recently finished the chapters on the Great Depression and FDR’s election to the White House. And it’s made me reflect on what history might say about Canada today.

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