PINDER: Mark Carney, as told by Mark Carney

This is the first of a three-part series and focuses on Mark Carney's character and values.

A country should understand the character and values of leadership candidates before voting. This is particularly so for an election that will determine the direction of our troubled country, when a candidate has lived much of his adult life out of Canada.

Mark Carney's biography is impressive. It indicates intellectual capacity, drive, and big ambition.

But his focus on the 'climate crisis' is unsettling for many. As a global climate celebrity, most of his accolades are from outside Canada. He left the Bank of Canada before his term expired to take a more prominent job at the Bank of England. He claims “I saved two economies” with reference to Canada during the 2008 credit crisis and later again in England during the Brexit debate. 

Former Prime Minister Steven Harper and his counterpart in England, Liz Truss, have both pushed back again this self-evaluation. There is much evidence that he has a high regard for his own views — on several occasions saying “I understand these things better than others”. 

Is this justified self-confidence or braggadocio?  

At he was installed as the Prime Minister he said, “I feel like everything in my life is helping prepare me for this moment”. Not quite the reference to divine intervention by Trump at his inauguration, but nevertheless a sense of manifest destiny. 

In his 2021 book Values, Carney advocated building “an economy and society based not on market values but on human values.” He should also acknowledge that most of humanity's existence was poverty and ordained social status, and the establishment of free markets and individual choice led to prosperity, freedom, and upward mobility (such as for himself.)

Free markets and human values are inextricably joined at the hip. There is usually a great difference between human values that develop over time versus those determined by Mark Carney or any other top down central planner. 

As part of his demonstrated belief in his superiority, Carney has also displayed disdain for the truth. He recently boasted that when Governor of the Bank of Canada, this country avoided the 2008 recession; yet, a video from 2008 came to light with him advising that Canada “is now entering a recession”. Oops.

While plagiarism in his thesis was defended by an Oxford colleague, several independent academics opined that it is both serious and unacceptable. A similar situation cost the President of Harvard, Carney's alma mater, her job. A more serious 'Oops?'

His most recent mis-step is telling event attendees that the AC/DC ‘Hells Bells’ rock hit being played reminded him of a previous event. His fib was that the release of the song was 20 years after that event. Oops again — not a big deal, but wrong by 20 years!

Carney announced his campaign in Edmonton where he grew up, at an outdoor hockey rink, emphasizing his hockey background and granular connection to voters. In the photo-op he was crouching in a net with goalie stick in hand. An astute observer noticed that the Italian boots he was wearing cost $2,000. Carney has earned his wealth and is entitled to spend it as he pleases. But an ordinary Edmontonian does not wear $2,000 boots. In terms of ‘being one us’ this was another inconvenient oopsie. 

As the then-Vice Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management seeking a $10 billion investment from the federal government in a $50 million capital raise, and at the same time Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister, he did not publicly disclose this conflict of interest. He avoided disclosure, he said, because his employer was the Liberal Party, not the government. This reflects a continuation of low bar Trudeau ethics, and a red flag for Canadians.

He continues to limit financial disclosure to the scheduled rules instead of full financial disclosure before the election, despite many requests. More Trudeau level ethics.

He blatantly misled everyone, recently denying any knowledge of Brookfield Asset Management moving its head office to New York. Yet as chairman, he presided over the meeting that passed the motion, and he signed the Letter to Shareholders requesting approval. This is a comment designed to mislead, damaging to his character, but timely for voters to observe. Much more serious than just an oops.

Conflicts of interest are often unavoidable. But, can Canadians have confidence in his integrity to fully and accurately disclose real or potential conflicts? Many of the above incidents are petty but in aggregate raise questions about his character.

On several occasions his rumoured temper has been displayed. Following a question from a reporter, Carney responded with an angry “no one believes the Globe and Mail.” Not smart, attacking a voice of the Laurentian Elite that is usually prone to a Liberal bias.

Carney has combined his ability with unabashed ambition and accomplished much. Becoming the prime minister is clearly on the list. Does the series of inaccurate statements, alleged plagiarism, faulty memory, demonstrated temper and deliberately misleading assertions reveal an ambition at any cost side of his value system?

Part II, which runs tomorrow, reviews his current election platform, particularly in the context of other global climate roles which question his real intentions.