Mark Carney Can’t Save The Liberals

The Liberals continue to act as if they have a personality problem or communications problem, but what they really have is a reality problem.

By Spencer Fernando, Exclusive to the National Citizens Coalition

As the Liberals desperately search for some sort of political game-changer, their latest gambit is to bring former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney on board.

Carney has taken a role with the Liberal Party as the “Chair of a Leader’s Task Force on Economic Growth.”

The party described Carney as a “globally acclaimed Canadian economist, public policy leader, sustainability advocate, and author will help the Liberal Party of Canada develop and shape ideas for the next phase of Canada’s strategy for near- and longer-term economic growth and productivity, building on the Liberal government’s work to strengthen the middle class and deliver lower costs for families.”

Had the Liberals made this announcement in 2015, it would have made some sense.

A new government bringing on someone like Carney would have been understandable as they sought to put together an economic plan for the future.

But it’s not 2015.

It’s 2024.

The Liberals aren’t a new government.

They’ve been in power for nearly nine years.

And Carney isn’t offering anything we haven’t already seen from the Liberals in what is amounting to a lost decade for Canada.

Carney’s appointment is clearly an attempt to put a new face on the Liberal economic record. It’s a tacit admission that neither Justin Trudeau nor Chrystia Freeland are seen as credible with the Canadian public on economic issues.

However, Carney’s appointment indicates the Liberals still don’t realize why they are so unpopular.

The government appears to believe they have a personality problem and a communication problem. They think that new spokespeople and new rhetoric will shift their horrendous polling numbers.

But they don’t understand what is really happening in this country.

The problem for the Liberals is that the reality of life in Canada is less than ideal.

Things are objectively getting worse on the Liberals’ watch.

Violent crime is up.

Our nation is more divided. 

The immigration system has been wrecked.

Our standard of living is declining.

Housing is unaffordable.

That’s not a political opinion or rhetorical flourish.

It is simply a fact.

And this has happened because of specific policy choices made by the Liberals.

The Liberals chose to ramp up Temporary Foreign Worker program to an absurd degree – despite warnings that it would cause significant harm to Canadian workers.

The Liberals chose to impose the carbon tax, chose to lie about raising it, and chose to keep raising it even as Canadians faced a cost-of-living crisis.

The Liberals chose to expand the bureaucracy at taxpayer’s expense.

The Liberals chose to strangle the energy sector and thus deprive Canadians of hundreds of billions of dollars of potential wealth.

The Liberals chose to run massive deficits that pushed up the cost of living and robbed us of our purchasing power.

The Liberals chose to exacerbate the housing affordability crisis through immigration increases and anti-supply policies.

Now, ask yourself this question:

Which one of those choices has Mark Carney opposed?

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Exactly.

Mark Carney’s appointment would only have value if he had meaningful differences with the failed economic policies of Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland.

He doesn’t.

He offers the same failed economic ideas, in a slightly more professional and subdued package.

That’s not what Canadians are looking for.

Why would people want to give the failed policies of the past nine years another try?

Why would anyone think that a new spokesperson would change anything if the underlying Liberal economic approach isn’t changing?

And most of all, why would anyone trust a government that – nine years in – is scrambling to look like they care about economic growth?

For the Liberals to win back the trust of Canadians, they would have had to abandon their failed policies years ago and move in a different direction.

They didn’t.

Instead, they doubled down on those policies and now they’re trying to put a new face on them.

Canadians aren’t going to fall for that.

Mark Carney can’t save the Liberal Party.

Canadians are fed up with this government, and we know it’s time for a change.

Spencer Fernando is one of the most popular and prolific political voices in Canada. He is a writer and campaign fellow for the National Citizens Coalition. Join the mailing list to receive his exclusive weekly columns in your inbox.

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