WHISSELL: Hello Carney, goodbye democracy

Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technicianWhat drives a man like Mark Carney, who has held some of the most powerful economic positions on the planet, to subsequently slink into the role of prime minister of Canada?"I'm not the usual suspect when it comes to politics, but this is no time for politics as usual,” Carney quipped at his launch to replace Trudeau in Edmonton. “It's not the time for lifelong politicians such as Pierre Poilievre.”Really?That might sound good. After all, who likes politicians? Yet those who have been paying attention to global politics know that when you suggest replacing politicians, there are but two chief alternatives: populists and technocrats.It’s an undemocratic course the technocrat named Mark Carney is taking to become PM.The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) has been courting him since at least 2012. That was around the time when governments in Greece and Italy were forced into unelected technocratic regimes, but Carney missed his opening in 2012 and moved on to become the governor of the Bank of England.Now, in 2025, a technocratic leader — an unelected central banker becoming PM — is a real possibility for Canada.Don’t expect Mark Carney or any of the LPC members to ever use the “t-word,” either. That would allow Canadian voters to define exactly what the LPC is up to. It would ruin the surprise.Carney promises the same sort of “answer” the technocratic regimes in Greece and Italy did to economic crises.Former head of the Bank of Greece, Lucas Papademos, for example, economic advisor to Greece’s PM George Papandreou, was asked in 2011 to be interim-PM to handle Greece’s debt crisis. Papademos became an unelected expert — a technocrat.Why did Greeks accept an unelected banker to run their country? The BBC believe it was because, “He was seen as untainted by the old-boy political networks that many Greeks blamed for the country's large-scale corruption and addiction to debt.”Does that sound vaguely familiar?If it doesn’t, look again at Carney’s quote up top.Both Greece’s six months under Papademos and Italy’s eighteen months under technocrat Mario Monti’s entourage failed to address soaring inflation, high taxes and paralyzed housing markets.Trudeau may have anticipated the same eventuality as Papandreou when he made Mark Carney his economic advisor in September last year. Ironically, so-called “blue Liberals” hoped to have Carney thirteen years ago instead of Justin.Poilievre has for months been cleverly calling out “Carbon Tax Carney,” anticipating the central banker’s arrival in the House of Commons.Carney surfaced on January 13 on The Daily Show. Despite the questionable venue to unofficially introduce his campaign, it was safer than using the embattled CBC. That could lead to guilt by association.So what exactly is the big problem with a technocrat and, for that matter, technocracy?There’s a reason Carney and the LPC won’t use the word “technocracy” at all. Once Canadians finally do add it to the vernacular, it’ll be too late, eh! By that time, technocratic depoliticization — systemic subversion of democratic processes — the biggest problem with technocracy according to the work of political scientist Dr. Anders Esmark, will be enraging Canadians from coast to coast. They’ll tell us it’s to combat the evils of Poilievre, Trump and “populists.” The truth is it stymies democracy in the name of getting things done.If you thought decisions like the Liberal-NDP back-door deal to prop up the federal government, the reduction of parliament during COVID-19, or the invocation of the Emergencies Act were undemocratic, get ready.Technocratic governments, both short-term to fight economic crises and long-term like the European Union, are notoriously undemocratic. Decisions in technocracies are based on unelected experts and that means policy paths are taken that minimize input from the public and politicians. Remember, Carney said, “This is no time for politics as usual.”The Western Standard got the smallest taste of Carney’s undemocratic path when accredited journalist James Snell was kicked out of Carney’s LPC launch in Edmonton like a nobody.Canada will be turned into a nation of nobodies under Carney, because our opinions won’t mean anything, and our votes will count for less than ever in a technocracy.Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technician.