Carney mixes up two Montreal tragedies
Mark Carney made a notable mistake on Tuesday in Nova Scotia, confusing two Montreal tragedies – the Polytechnique massacre (1989) and the Concordia shootings (1992).
He later apologized.
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Kate
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PatrickC 11:45 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
This kind of blunder will not endear him to the Quebec voter. Carney’s work with tax havens also makes him vulnerable to anti-elitist sentiment. I’m not sure he realizes he can’t just campaign on competence alone, or how much damage “gotcha” moments can do.
Kate 12:10 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
He’s not a politician yet, but he will be, by the end of April.
jeather 12:41 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
He’s prime minister, he’s a politician. He’s not an MP.
Kate 13:13 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
Technically yes, he’s a politician, but he’s new at the job. I meant more that he’s undergoing a lightning revision of how he presents himself. Carney wouldn’t have had the jobs he’s had if he wasn’t a quick study.
MarcG 13:15 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping his French pronounciation improves ASAP.
jeather 13:47 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
Well no one will notice during the French debate in Montreal since it overlaps with the last Habs game of the season, so he has a bit longer to practice.
Ian 14:20 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
TBH if Carney showed up at the game it would do better in the polls than any results on the debate.
Joey 15:07 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
He may have no electoral campaign experience, but he’s not exactly ‘not a politician’ – he was a very senior bureaucrat, the governor of two (!) central banks, etc. He’s clearly got some knack for politics because he swept what should’ve been a somewhat competitive leadership race, immediately undid the two most contentious policies his party had unveiled (the cap gains tax hike and the consumer carbon tax, at least one of which he probably personally still supported) and brought a DOA party to a comfortable lead; due to vote efficiency, a small LPC lead in the national polls could easily translate into a big majority government.
I think that these kinds of slip-ups or an inability to fully pander won’t matter as much given the existential threat nature of this election. To the extent that the Liberals lose some ground in Quebec, it’s almost certainly going to be in favour of the Bloc and, critically, not the Conservatives.
Also, isn’t there a separate French debate already planned for that week – one that doesn’t require the campaigns to kick up $75K? Mountains, molehills.
Ian 20:27 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
I’m more concerned that our federal options are a center right neoliberal or a further right populist. Even Tom Mulcair is saying it’s a two-horse race; we’re screwed regardless of how well Carney or PP can talk shit in French.
MarcG 08:25 on 2025-03-27 Permalink
Yeah it’s not hard to imagine Carney making very adult economic excuses for further eroding our social services. Based on the latest polls the NDP is about to take a bath and possibly lose official party status.
H. John 11:46 on 2025-03-27 Permalink
MarcG wrote: “it’s not hard to imagine Carney making very adult economic excuses for further eroding our social services.”
Sorry MarcG, but I find it really, really hard to imagine that.
I’m reading his 2021 book right now “Value(s) – Building a Better World for All”
Two short quotes from the Preface:
“…most fundamentally, equating price with value leads to a flattening of our values. Too often, decisions are made by summing up prices with no sense of priority or consideration of their distribution. And that which isn’t priced – like nature, community and diversity – is ignored. This encourages trade-offs of growth today and crisis tomorrow, of health and economics, of planet and profit.”
and
“…markets don’t have values, people do. And we must close the gap between what we value and what the market prices. After all, we are living in a time that confuses market value with human values – in a world where we know the price of Amazon the company but not the value of the Amazon rainforest, a world where technology threatens to replace our jobs rather than improve them.”
Ian 12:58 on 2025-03-27 Permalink
Campaign left and govern right is the Liberal way. If Carney bucks that trend I will be pleasnatly, but VERY surprised. Talk is cheap.