Prime Minister Mark Carney is refusing to disclose details about stocks and other assets he and his wife hold across two continents, including investments in corporations that receive federal contracts.
Blacklock's Reporter says when asked by reporters about his financial holdings, Carney expressed surprise at the inquiry.
“I would like to reassure you the assets I have were earned through employment, employment income, employment as a public servant and employment in the private sector,” Carney said.
He did not provide further details.
A reporter pressed him on the matter, asking, “What is the value of the assets and where did they come from? How can Canadians know there is no conflict of interest if they don’t know where the assets come from?”
Carney dismissed the question, calling it an “odd” way to frame the issue. “The assets are in a blind trust,” he said.
He further explained, “I have six months or 120 days to put the assets in a blind trust. I already have put the assets in a blind trust. Once assets are in a blind trust, by definition you don’t know the assets because the trustees take over the responsibility.”
Before winning the March 9 Liberal Party leadership, Carney held executive roles and directorships with Bloomberg L.P., Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, Pacific Investment Management Co., and Stripe.com, a retail payment firm.
His wife, Diana Carney, was a senior advisor with the Eurasia Group of New York, a federal contractor that has received $829,380 in Department of Natural Resources contracts since 2020, according to government records.
Diana Carney also served as a director for Pi Capital International LLC of London and Terramera Inc., a Vancouver-based green technology firm. Terramera has received $3.2 million in Department of Agriculture grants since 2020.
Carney, a multi-millionaire, is believed to be the wealthiest prime minister since Paul Martin, the former CEO of Canada Steamship Lines.
Opposition MPs have criticized what they are calling a “Carney loophole” in the Conflict of Interest Act, which does not require leadership candidates to disclose their income and assets.
“He can simply put the existing holdings in what is called a ‘blind trust’ while his trustee keeps him invested in all the same things,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters on March 7. “He could go on and govern for years quietly and subtly knowing what investments he has and making decisions that profit himself at the expense of the Canadian people.”