How will Canadians remember the long reign of Justin Trudeau? Good hair, cool socks, and the ability to recite Liberal talking points with theatrical flair? Certainly not for his grasp of any of the more complex subjects normally expected to be in the arsenal of a person who believes he should lead a nation. Remember Trudeau saying that budgets balance themselves? Or when he scoffed at a question about monetary policy? Trudeau thought it quite funny that he should be expected to know anything about such an arcane subject. But the fact is that Canadians do expect the person they elect as their leader to know about such things. In fact, one of the main reasons why Canadians chose Mark Carney over Pierre Pollievre was their impression that Carney, with his impressive background as a banker and financier, would be better able to competently navigate complicated subjects, like international trade, tariffs, and yes — monetary policy. .The other major reason why Carney was elected was his alleged ability to stand up to Donald Trump — his “elbows up” campaign promise. That reference to elbows, of course, is to the legendary Gordie Howe, who was famous for using his elbows — and every other part of his strong body — to get the puck. The promise was that Carney would not yield to Trump, but would go into the corner with Trump with “elbows up” and fight like hell to preserve Canadian interests. Both of these promises took a mighty blow in the recent dustup over the Digital Services Act. Carney folded like a cheap suit as soon as Trump roared. That overnight reversal of the Digital Services Tax doesn’t bode well for those who have been hoping that the Carney Liberals will be an improvement over the Trudeau Liberals. Trudeau had shown himself to be a lightweight, who had no business running a government. Carney was touted as the totally competent banker who would set things right. While many of his critics worry about his globalist, progressive views, no one really doubted his competence. Until now, that is. His immediate reversal of the tax makes us doubt his competence. .Why would he wait until the last minute to cancel a tax he knew Trump found unacceptable. Joe Biden had found that dog of a tax unacceptable as well, and had been taking action to get it cancelled. It was obviously a pure money grab on the part of the federal government, and would just be piled on to the ever growing list of taxes that grossly overtaxed Canadians already have to pay. Every time one used their Netflix, Uber app, or any digital service the tax would have to be paid. For giants, like Google, it was more than an annoyance, it was an unfair tax that they were not going to tolerate. Britain is still insisting that they will hold on to their digital services fees, but that is not likely to last long. Neither Britain, or other European nations with similar taxes are likely to keep them, given Trump’s insistence that he will not allow American corporations to be subjected to them. Why Carney embarrassed himself by waiting until Trump made a fool of him before cancelling it is hard to understand. It certainly speaks neither to his competence, or his ability to stand up to Trump. Carney came away looking not only weak, but less than competent as well. But this is not the first decision Carney has made that should have us asking if he knows what he is doing. Did Canadians buy a pig in a poke when they elected him? Could it be that he is as bad — or even worse — than his predecessor? .Consider: Carney made the decision to leave his predecessor’s EV Mandate in place. With Trump effectively ending American equivalents, such as California’s. This is a mandate that any reasonably informed Canadian will know cannot possibly work. Under it all light-duty vehicles sold in Canada must be 100% zero emission free (plug-ins) by 2035. Beginning next year 20% of vehicles sold must be zero emission, and every year thereafter the percentage increases until 2035, when it is 100%. This law would heavily penalize a car dealer in Moose Jaw, for example, if at least 20% of the light-duty vehicles he sells next year are not zero emission — i.e. plug in vehicles. Penalties would increase as the mandated percentages grow higher each year. Perhaps, with subsidies, this mandate might be workable in Toronto or Montreal, but there is not a chance in Hades — given present technology- that this can happen in cold, largely rural, western Canada, unless the federal government provides massive subsidies to car buyers. But those subsidies would come from taxes paid by working Canadians, most of whom can’t afford to buy an EV, even if they wanted one. Why should someone from a rural area who drives an aging gas vehicle have to subsidize a wealthier person in Toronto who wants a Tesla as a second or third vehicle? There is no sense or fairness to it? .And even if by some miracle the mandate worked, and every Canadian suddenly had an EV in their driveway, Canada simply doesn’t have the charging capacity to keep those vehicles charged up. One estimate is that 14 new CANDU nuclear reactors would have to be built to accommodate those vehicles. The cost would be staggering. By some estimates replacing all gas powered vehicles with electric vehicles, and building the electricity plants necessary to power all of those vehicles, would cost a trillion dollars. Simply put, it could only be accomplished by drastically lowering the standard of living of every working Canadian. One doesn’t have to be an expert to know that the EV mandate is unworkable, and will have to go. Forcing Canadians to buy vehicles they don’t want, while making them poorer in the process is authoritarian madness, and not something a Canadian PM should do. Carney should know that, but it is not clear that he does. And what about the carbon tariff on all goods coming into Canada. Does Carney think that Trump is going to go for it? Under that stinker of a law every CO2 molecule entering the country would be subject to a Canadian tax. Why would Trump go for such nonsense? Canada has become a virtual economic backwater under Trudeau’s ideologically driven climate change politics, and Carney seems determined to mindlessly continue the same failed policies. And then there are Canada’s dairy tariffs — that’s what Canada’s quotas for dairy, eggs and poultry are? Trump has long complained about these tariffs, asking — quite reasonably — why Canada puts tariffs on American products, but expects Canadian products to be tariff free. Here’s how Trump puts it: “They have charged our farmers as much as 400% tariffs for years on dairy products,” wrote Trump. Canada was “a very difficult country to trade with,” he said. .The social media post came as Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet marked the passage of Bill C-202 An Act To Amend The Department Of Foreign Affairs Act. It states the cabinet “must not make any commitment on behalf of the Government of Canada by international trade treaty or agreement” that would alter quotas for dairy, eggs or poultry. But here is Carney vowing to keep exactly those tariffs forever: “Prime Minister Mark Carney personally endorsed the dairy bill. “Supply management will never, never be on the negotiation table,” Carney told the Commons May 29. “Supply management will be protected. I am going to give a direct answer to you. We will protect supply management.” Does that even make sense? Does Carney expect Trump to just give him a pass on a tariff that is egregiously unfair to American farmers, as well as to Canadian consumers? Why should a piece of Wisconsin cheese that is sold in an American store for $3 cost $10 in a Canadian store? If Carney’s argument is that tariffs are unfair, and we should have free trade, how can he support such a blatantly unfair tariff as the milk, eggs and dairy quotas? Surely Carney knows that his stand is hypocritical? The Western Standard’s Cory Morgan argues that “dying on the hill” for Quebec’s dairy industry is a very bad move for Canada — especially now, when it is like waving a red flag in Trump’s face. There have been other worrying signs as well that Carney talks a good line, but doesn’t really know what he is doing. His semi-commitment to Premier Danielle Smith that he would be happy to build a pipeline — as long as it just carried “decarbonized oil” — rang an alarm. There is no such thing as “decarbonized oil”, despite the rather sketchy and expensive “carbon capture” schemes being peddled by opportunists. .These are all worrying signs that the prime minister eastern Canadians put in power is more like the Wizard of Oz, frantically pulling levers behind the curtain, than the competent saviour they thought they were voting for. A majority of Canadians voted to return the same Liberals who have thoroughly degraded this country for only one reason — because they believed that Carney would succeed where Trudeau had failed. They believed that Carney knew what he was doing, where Trudeau clearly didn’t. Conservative critics who didn’t vote for him have pointed to Carney’s globalist, progressive views as reasons why they were voting for Pollievre. But, here’s the thing: Virtually no one doubted Carney’s basic competence. Everyone assumed that he knew what he was doing. But does he? Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
