TORONTO—Every prime minister should get a chance. No matter who I may have preferred, or who I may have cast a ballot for, once the Canadian people have spoken, a duly elected prime minister and their government have the right to govern as they see fit (within all the usual safeguards). Mark Carney has already brought a change of tone to Ottawa. He has brought a different—one could even say renewed—sense of decorum and professionalism to the office. And he has certainly said many of the right things about the challenges facing Canada, and what Canadians must do to face them.
Unfortunately, that’s the easy part. It will get harder from here.
It doesn’t seem like it, but Mark Carney is now three months into his post-election tenure. And that is not counting the time he spent as prime minister after becoming Liberal leader in the winter. We’re a few days off from the precise three-month mark—let’s round up for the sake of simplicity. How much time does Carney have to leave his imprint on Ottawa before Ottawa changes him? More to the point, how much time does he have left?
After the election in April, I told my colleague, Jen Gerson, that I thought Carney needed six months. But also that we all needed six months, too. With everyone exhausted after the campaign, and with summer looming, it was understandable that things would start a bit slowly. But as all the politicians seemed to agree back when they were on the campaign trail, time is of the essence. Canadian sovereignty is in danger. Our economic prosperity, on which our quality of life rests, is imperilled. The world is changing fast—and not for the better.
Right? We still think that’s true? Has that changed? No? Okay. Well then. Carney was elected to fix that problem. What’s happening so far?
Like I said above, the tone has changed. For the better. And tone matters. You’ll never hear me suggesting otherwise. But eventually, tone must translate into action. I’m prepared to give the prime minister the balance of the six months I said we owed him. It is very possible that he is using the summer to get his new staff in place and dialled in. To rest. To have his key advisers and leaders rest. And that he will come out swinging hard after Labour Day.
I’m not being snarky. It’s really possible that’s exactly what’s going to happen. And if so, I’ll have the good grace to say so.
But I am worried. Every newly elected leader is in a race against the inertia of the blob of government. Carney is not only trying to turn around the Canadian ship of state, but also the Liberal Party of Canada — which seemed functionally hunky-dory with how the last guy was running things right up until the moment Chrystia Freeland hit her breaking point. Carney is already three months into his standoff with the forces of the status quo, and it’s a two-front war for the PM. Delay helps them more than him. He’ll be into his fifth month by the time we’re all getting back to real life after the summer.
All is not lost. He does have time. I will give him the benefit of the doubt during this period. But I’m not sure he has as much time as he might think. Events keep on keeping on. American trade policies coming out of the White House have changed several times since Carney was elected, and recent attention on the president’s links to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein certainly raise the possibility of further disruptive announcements coming from a White House looking for a channel changer. Meanwhile, a series of global conflicts continue. And none of us know from where the next great crisis will come—or when it will arrive.
Carney deserves time. He needs time in order to get up to speed. Fair enough.
But time is not his friend. He may not have as much time as he wants—or that any of us would wish for him. I hope to start seeing some of the changed tone translate into concrete action. And I hope I will not have to wait much longer.
Matt Gurney is a Toronto-based journalist. He is co-editor of The Line (ReadTheLine.ca), an online magazine. He can be reached at matt@readtheline.ca.
The Hill Times