BY IAN PATTISON
HE LASTED 10 tumultuous years in office but his farewell was short and sweet – a 31-second video in which he expressed pride and confidence in Canada. Justin Trudeau said goodbye as prime minister Thursday, a victim of circumstance and a little too much ideology that clashed with the world of economic hurt being felt by most Canadians yearning for leadership that matches the times.
Enter Mark Carney, a match made in heaven by some accounts – economics degrees from Harvard and Oxford, investment banker, governor of the Banks of Canada and England, global climate envoy, chair of one of the world’s top investment firms.
“My strength is I know how the world works, I know how to get things done, I’m connected, I can deliver for the country,” the new Liberal leader and briefly, next prime minister said on a recent podcast. “My weakness is people will charge me with being elitist, or a globalist. Well, it happens to be exactly what we need.”
And there goes his opponents’ claim that he’s out of touch with “regular” Canadians. He may not do the grocery shopping in his house but he knows exactly why grocery prices have remained mystifyingly high despite inflation cooling. There is a reason the Liberals have this week pulled even with the Conservatives in opinion polling and it has to do with the new guy’s CV.
Trudeau faced much the same silver-spoon criticism that only escalated following the Covid crisis’s necessary vaccine mandates to the point of viciousness. It didn’t let up even as he prepared to depart. It’s as if the nasties are angrier than ever at losing their target.
They certainly minimize his accomplishments. Ten years is a long time to lose track of the good that Trudeau brought to this country. His leadership during those two wrenching years of Covid was exemplary despite what some flag-waving, horn-honking malcontents say.
In no particular order he also lowered taxes for everyone making less than $100,000, lifted millions of children out of poverty and ushered in $10-a-day daycare saving middle-class families even more. Children and vulnerable seniors have free dental care with pharmacare on the way to covering more prescriptions.
He worked his butt off on age-old Indigenous issues that continue to stymie any politician who wades in to try to solve them.
His commitment to offsetting climate change – that unfortunately now gets second billing in public concern to a tariff tyrant named Trump – has been admirable. Despite not quite understanding its mechanics, the consumer carbon tax caused Canadians to change how they used energy, which was the idea, while forcing big industrial polluters to explore cleaner options. Coal plants are being phased out. He set aside record amounts of land and water for conservation.
A housing crisis that was exacerbated by his overly generous immigration policies is being tamed by a pair of building policies that are seeing record home construction numbers. Thunder Bay is ahead of its target to build 1,700 new units by 2027. Grants and loans were made available to homeowners to invest in energy-efficient products and taxes slashed for companies that make them.
Though defence spending has lagged badly, Trudeau used his last weeks in office to approve contracts for new destroyers and heavy icebreakers to operate in the increasingly contentious Arctic. New jet fighters and artillery for the army should spur enlistment to help guard the country and police turmoil and war overseas.
These are major accomplishments on everyday concerns. You may not like the man or his mannerisms but that doesn’t change a decade’s history of difficult and largely fruitful service to Canada that continued right until the end.
As John DeMont wrote recently in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, “ . . . liberated from the distraction of plunging popularity poll numbers, a seething electorate and a disgruntled caucus, he has chosen another way: the way of the statesman and the patriot, as it must be for a wartime prime minister.
“As the country faces an existential threat, he is fighting the battle of our lifetime for a country that had turned its back on him. What is more, he is doing so right up to the very last minute, earning the respect of his staunchest critics and, in the process, rewriting the finale of his prime minister-ship.”
THE CHANGING of the guard that began Sunday with Carney winning an astounding 86-per-cent support in the Liberal leadership contest again saw Trudeau speak from the heart. There was a finality to it and a sense of not so much resignation but of calm.
Both he and Carney were introduced by their poised elder daughters. I don’t know who was more impressive, Ella-Grace Trudeau or Cleo Carney, but together those two political offspring provided a great deal of confidence in the youth of today and the community leaders of tomorrow.
Carney takes the reins just as the ridiculous tariff war launched by the unlikeliest leader of all time explodes across myriad products and rips through the national economy and household budgets. It may not be what he bargained for but Carney has picked up right where Trudeau left off with a firm determination to stand up, a refusal to back down.
He’ll meet Trump anytime and any place with one condition – there must be respect for our sovereignty. No more nonsense about us becoming part of the United States against our will.
THE CONSERVATIVE opposition has wasted little time trying to paint Carney as unfit to breathe the same air as the imperious Pierre Poilievre who must be seething at having squandered his 20-point lead in the polls.
With Carney’s Liberal leadership win, Pollievre and the Conservatives have an uphill battle to remain competitive, Mario Levesque, an associate professor in public policy at Mount Allison University told CBC this week.
“I think for them, it’s trying to identify who the public enemy number one is,” he said.
“Before, it was the carbon tax and Justin Trudeau. Well, both are gone now. So what’s their identity?
“The problem with the Conservatives is they did not cultivate another identity outside of those things. So now they’re trying to pivot and to attack Carney and his economic credentials.”
They harped forever about the carbon tax, linking it to “Justin Trudeau.” With Trudeau leaving they pivoted to claim “carbon tax Carney” would be no different – until Carney said Friday he’ll cancel the program because it’s been so divisive, with climate plans of his own in store.
On Friday, Poilievre uttered his latest inanity – “carbon tax con job,” claiming to know that if he wins the pending election, Carney will reinstate the carbon tax he cancelled that very day and cancel the consumer rebate in the process. How he knows this as fact he didn’t explain, just as he’ll find it impossible to remain credible if this doesn’t happen either. Painting oneself into an imaginary corner is not a wise political strategy.
Poilievre and his new attack dog Michael Barrett (where did that twerp Michael Cooper get to?) then set about trying to paint Carney as “sneaky” because of his vast wealth, undeclared to Canadians. Except that the rules say you only have to declare it once you take office. Even at that Carney this week placed his assets in a blind trust; he’d already resigned from his corporate positions.
Now he’s off to Europe to commiserate with EU leaders, joining forces to beat back Trump’s tariffs with smart, targeted tariffs aimed at the red states that form Trump’s army of devoted, delusional supporters whose belief in his promise to fill their pockets “with more money than they ever dreamed of” are about to come crashing down.
In the meantime, Canadians will count on the steady hand that Carney brings and hope that his past is the weapon we need to build a new future with new markets and renewed alliances.
Ian Pattison is retired as editorial page editor of The Chronicle-Journal, but still shares his thoughts on current affairs. You can email him at iPatPoint29@gmail.com.
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