Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing criticism after incorrectly identifying Joe Clark as Alberta’s first prime minister during a videotaped tribute praising the province’s contributions to Canada.Speaking from the Library of Parliament, Carney celebrated what he called the achievements of “great Albertans” in politics, sports, science and culture before stumbling over a basic point of Canadian political history.“I think when I come to Parliament, of the great Albertans,” Carney said. “There are many, too many to list their contributions, from the first Alberta prime minister, Joe Clark, our youngest prime minister.”Carney also referenced former prime minister Stephen Harper and longtime Conservative cabinet minister Don Mazankowski in the remarks.But Clark was not Alberta’s first prime minister.That distinction belongs to Richard Bedford Bennett, the Calgary MP who became prime minister in 1930 and remains the only Canadian prime minister to have previously served in the Alberta legislature.After questions were raised about Carney’s comments, aides reportedly attempted to clarify that the prime minister meant Clark was the “first prime minister born in Alberta,” though no explanation was offered for including Harper, who was born in Toronto.Bennett moved to Calgary in 1897 before Alberta became a province and later campaigned unsuccessfully to make Calgary the provincial capital.Historians credit Bennett with helping create several major Canadian institutions during the Great Depression, including the Canadian Wheat Board, CBC and Bank of Canada — the same central bank Carney would later lead after being appointed governor in 2007.Bennett also donated roughly $1 million to charitable causes upon his death in 1947, including gifts benefiting Calgary schools. He was later designated a National Historic Person..Carney frequently describes himself as a proud Albertan despite being born in the Northwest Territories in 1965.“It’s always great to be back home in Alberta,” Carney wrote in a 2024 social media post. In another post during the Calgary Stampede, he declared: “Back home in Alberta. No place like it.”Carney spent part of his childhood in Edmonton and has publicly described himself as an Edmonton Oilers fan.“I obviously grew up in the salad days of Gretzky,” Carney told the Edmonton Journal in 2009.Records show Carney left Alberta in 1983 to attend Harvard University, one year before the Oilers captured their first Stanley Cup.The prime minister also drew scrutiny earlier this month after claiming Alberta’s oil sands “were just a concept, a curiosity to most” when he was born.Historical records show oil sands processing dates back to 1949 and commercial viability had already been established by 1964 — before Carney’s birth.
