HANNAFORD: Carney response to Rosemary Barton shows nasty streak

“Look inside yourself, Rosemary.”

What?

Did Prime Minister Carney just condescend to a female reporter he thought was asking irritating questions?

Yes, he did. In fact, he also suggested that as a reporter, she might be driven by ‘ill-will.’

That was different. None of that patient deflection that we so often get from politicians, nor any of their wearying obfuscations. You don’t like the way the questions are going? You’re picking up a little 'ill will?’ Tell ’em to mind their own damn business.

Now, that's the tough streak we want out of a prime minister at a time like this, eh?

And then the PM having insulted Ms. Barton, people — Liberals — started shaming her... More of that in a moment.

Up until he walked into the board room at London’s Canada House yesterday, Mr. Carney had been on a roll. He had just been to see the king, where he was apparently warmly received. When he tangled with Ms. Barton, he was in a press conference to take questions from British media, many of whom joshed the former Bank of England governor-turned-politician; it was a bit of an old-home week for a few moments. But also present were Canadian journalists who had accompanied Carney in the steerage compartment of the prime-ministerial plane, as he made his alliance-building visit to Great Britain and France.

Among the latter was Ms. Barton, the CBC’s Chief Political Correspondent. Of all the people to be asking awkward questions.

When Mr. Carney briefly took leave of his senses, he should have been remembering that for the Liberal Party of Canada, the CBC are ‘their’ people. (The Conservatives, sadly for them, don’t have 'people.’)

For clarity, it is not necessarily that CBC management and reporters dishonestly and with malice aforethought plan to skew the news. It’s just that you would never get far in the CBC if you didn’t think like a Liberal. Confronted with an editorial dilemma they thus tilt towards the Liberals because they honestly can't think of another way of interpreting what they're looking at. Their editorial judgments are honestly made then, but seldom judgments that conservatives would make.

It is also not an insignificant matter that the Government of Canada pays the freight for the CBC, to the tune of about $1.6 billion a year and in the pantheon of the CBC’s estimable public faces, Ms. Barton reigns.

So had we at the Western Standard been asked by the Liberals for our honest advice, we would have suggested the prime minister keep Ms. Barton sweet, the way President Trump keeps Fox’s Sean Hannity sweet.

Anyway, Globe and Mail reporter Stephanie Levitz had been asking the new prime minister about his investments, and the blind trust arrangements that would govern them while he was in power.

It was actually a fair question. It is one that the Conservatives have been asking. Indeed, they have been circling like sharks since Mr. Carney told them he was off the Brookfield board by the time the massive Canadian investment conglomerate moved from Toronto to New York, when company documents indicated otherwise.

Fair enough then, how was the blind trust going to work?

Like many highly rewarded people, Mark Carney doesn’t seem to appreciate close scrutiny and into that minefield wandered the Glob. From my own Ottawa days, I recall Ms. Levitz as one of the most pleasantly capable members of the press gallery: Nevertheless, for having the temerity to poke around in the matter of the prime minister’s investments, she had her toes scorched.

As our own Jarryd Jäger described it, “After refusing to tell the Canadian people what assets he placed in a blind trust, the former businessman shifted the focus to Pierre Poilievre, namely the fact he still hasn't received security clearance."

"What possible conflict would you have, Stephanie?" Carney asked when Levitz grilled him on the issue at hand.

And so Ms. Barton picked up the line of questioning. That was when Mr. Carney let it be known that he had had enough.

Look, if our newly minted prime minister can't handle Rosemary Barton, he's not going to have much fun on the election campaign.

However, the really deviant thing happening here now, is that the Liberals are going crazy on social media, demanding Ms. Barton be relieved of her duties. Hear Cory Morgan on the subject.

"What possible conflict would you have, Stephanie?" Carney asked when Levitz grilled him on the issue at hand.

And so Ms. Barton picked up the line of questioning. That was when Mr. Carney let it be known that he had had enough.

Look, if our newly minted prime minister can't handle Rosemary Barton, he's not going to have much fun on the election campaign.

However, the really deviant thing happening here now, is that the Liberals are going crazy on social media, demanding Ms. Barton be relieved of her duties.

And here are a few more samples.

'I love how he responded. She was out of line, biassed...'

'Carney told Rosemary Barton to look within herself when she accused him of having conflicts of interest in his blind trust. He is my hero!'

'Rosemary Barton is trying to poison our minds & withdraw our support of Mark Carney. She is not doing it as a responsible journalist by reporting facts, but rather by way of bitterness & anger that has nothing to do with PM Carney.'

Mr. Carney has so far traded on being more competent than Mr. Trudeau and more likeable than Mr. Poilievre.

In this little episode, he revealed himself as less competent in handling the media that Mr. Trudeau, and frankly not at all likeable, period.