Letter: Mark Carney wants to be Prime Minister, and it would be horrible for democracy.
It started purely as an Ottawa rumour mill, but since the inevitable end of the Trudeau saga is here, suddenly it appears that the man has bitten.
If you do not already know, meet Mark Carney, the likely next leader of the Liberal Party, Loyal Opposition, and maybe future Prime Minister of Canada. Governor of the Bank of Canada during the Harper years, he was held up as a bulwark of objective monetary policy and non-partisan civil service.
The Harper years were economically stable, at least in comparison to other advanced economies, and the state we are in now. Laurentian elites made sure that Carney got as much credit as possible, they simply could not let Harper claim this as his success.
But that is not all. After completing his term as Governor of the Bank of Canada, he went on to become Governor of the Bank of England. Surely few people could claim such macro-economic accolades. So why would it be such a bad idea for him to become leader of the Liberal Party and by extension, a potential future Prime Minister of Canada? Well to put it simply….”drain the Swamp.”
Donald Trump is not the first populist politician to gain power by railing against clueless elites, nepotistic classes and bloated government employee payrolls. He will not be the last.
Why? Well to be honest….because this is exactly what reality is. There will always be an anti- democratic tendency in your educational and political elites.
This tendency is to believe that a small group of people with “higher IQs” (or often time simply impressive degrees) are actually better at organizing simple dumb people’s lives then they are themselves. Now, to a degree this is true. It would be unwise to get rid of medical doctors or engineers completely. But there is an equal moral hazard in making these classes invincible to any pushback or accountability. After all, human beings are human beings, and everybody has their ideological blindspots. This is why democracy is the “worst form of political system….except for all of the others”.
A Liberal Party headed by Mark Carney proves Trump, and other populists, right. Far from being an institution of objective math and econometrics, the Bank of Canada is but another federal Laurentian Liberal honey pot, with positional appointments based, not on abilities, but rather who you know and who you secretly pledge Party allegiance to. It proves that every single government office of the federal government has fallen to partisan capture by the “natural ruling” party of Canada.
In short, I have no idea why it would be considered a good idea, neither for pragmatic Liberal Party strategy nor for public faith in government institutions. And not just a passive Liberal, but actually right in the thick of Party Strategizing and Policy development. Other than the Governor General, I can think of no office in Canada that demands more partisan ambivalence.
At the end of the day, Pierre Poilievre will make quick work of it….
“See…they are so arrogant the Liberals do not even try to hide the fact that the entire federal government workforce pledges them allegiance.”
You would think the Laurentian elites would have already learned the lesson. They were convinced the superior IQ and Harvard credentials of Michael Ignatieff would ensure the end of the Harper “usurpation”.
Alas, Canadians saw through an entitled parachute candidate who literally moved back after two decades just to become Prime Minister. But who am I to tell the Liberal Party how to steer their ship. I am just a concerned Canadian who is forced to realize our most important civil offices, even the ones that should operate purely on math, are just smoke screens hiding the back-door deals.
Joe Nusse
Valemount, B.C.
