Mark Carney

Tuesday April 6, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 6, 2021

Mark Carney would be a welcome addition to a Canadian political class

September 28, 2012

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Mark Carney entering politics, if that’s what he wants to do. But before taking the leap, Mr. Carney might want to ask himself: Am I Dwight Eisenhower or am I Michael Ignatieff?

The former governor of the Bank of Canada and then of England has a new book out and will deliver the keynote address at this week’s Liberal policy conference. Twitter is clucking.

“The beginning of a journey that will end in deep regret and the erosion [of] a critical independent pillar of a modern economy – the central bank,” declared Ken Boessenkool, who was an aide to former B.C. premier Christy Clark and prime minister Stephen Harper.

Liberals “don’t see – or care, really – how this could erode our institutions; they only see partisan gain,” Laval University Professor Stephen Gordon said.

But there are precedents, of sorts. Oliver Mowat quit his job as a judge to become Ontario Liberal premier. Lester Pearson moved without fuss from undersecretary of state (deputy minister) for External Affairs to secretary of state (minister).

February 11, 2009

Mr. Carney has been away from the Bank of Canada for eight years. He is superbly qualified for public office. He has views on the role of markets and governments in combatting climate change. If he wants to enter the arena, good on him. The political class in Canada needs all the talent it can find.

That said, Mr. Carney should bear a few things in mind (and is certainly already bearing them). First, he could seek to become a Liberal member of Parliament, only for the Liberal Party to lose the next election. Would he enjoy four years on the backbench?

Perhaps his ambition is to lead the party, if and when Justin Trudeau decides to depart. But that might not be soon. Mr. Trudeau rescued the federal Liberals from the brink of extinction, so while an effort by some disaffected cabal to push him out of the leadership would be in the finest tradition of the party, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

If he does run for the Liberal leadership someday, Mr. Carney would make a formidable candidate. But not an invincible one.

Some figures have successfully taken over a party’s leadership from another field without difficulty. Mr. Eisenhower, who commanded the Allied forces in Europe during the Second World War, was so sought after that Harry Truman offered to step down as president if Mr. Eisenhower would seek the Democratic nomination in 1948. Instead, Ike chose the Republican Party in 1952, serving two terms as president.

May 2, 2009

Others have not fared so well. Mr. Ignatieff, a distinguished public intellectual, was supposed to rescue the Liberal Party from its unaccustomed sojourn in opposition. Instead, he led the party to a third-place finish in 2011.

Could Mr. Carney’s ego withstand the daily pummelling of Question Period? Could he dish out the political dirt when required? Leading a party is about more than crafting an environmentally sustainable fiscal policy. Speaking to a few dozen of the party faithful in Prince Albert on a cold February night is also part of the job.

And Mr. Carney would have a formidable political rival: his friend Chrystia Freeland, the Finance Minister, who is also rumoured to be contemplating a bid for the leadership if and when it comes open.

November 28, 2012

Both potential leaders appeal to the political, bureaucratic and cultural elite of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Since they would be chasing the same voters (and dollars), it’s hard to imagine both of them seeking the Liberal leadership. If one runs, the other probably won’t.

Canada has benefited greatly from non-politician politicians. David Emerson was so interested in reviving Canada’s moribund trade policy, and so uninterested in politics, that he switched from the Liberal to Conservative front bench when Mr. Harper defeated Paul Martin in 2006.

Maurice Strong had a career in the oil business before taking on a variety of assignments for governments and the United Nations. C.D. Howe was a wealthy engineer before becoming “minister of everything” under Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent.

If Mr. Carney truly wishes to lead the Liberal Party and the country, Canadians of all political stripes should welcome the decision. If only all politicians had his chops. (Globe & Mail) 

 

Wednesday November 28, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday November 28, 2012

A British Take on Mark Carney

Mark Carney, the new Governor of the Bank of England, is a remarkable man. He studied economics at Harvard, racked up a Master’s and a doctorate at Oxford, and, for the past four years, he’s been governor of his national bank – all before the age of 50. Carney is married to a glamorous British economist and has four lovely daughters. According to Time magazine, he’s one of the 25 most influential people in the world.

But – wait for it – there’s something even more remarkable about England’s new top banker. He’s a Canadian! Carney, he of the snappy suits and slicked-back hair, hails from the nation affectionately known as “America’s attic”. What’s more, he’s proud of it. He’s a maple syrup-drinking, poutine-loving, moose-spotting, beer-swilling ice-hockey fan, who once dreamed of playing for his local team, the Edmonton Oilers.

A couple of decades on, his selection for the coveted BoE job has raised a few eyebrows – not least because of his nationality. “Canadians have a reputation for being the boring good guys,” says Oxford academic (and bona fide Canadian) Margaret MacMillan. “If you want to say something is really tedious, you say ‘as dull as a Sunday in Canada’. We’ve never been loudly patriotic, probably because we live next to the US. As a result, people think we’re dull and quiet all the time.”

You see, even Canadians admit it: their country has an image problem. It has long been subjected to stereotypes – perpetuated by South Park and Due South – and rather than deny them, Canadians have simply got used to being the butt of bad jokes. “A Canadian,” goes the gag by the author Pierre Berton, “is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe.” (Source: The Telegraph) 

 

Saturday August 20, 2011

Saturday August 20, 2011Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 20, 2011

Flaherty, Carney take cautious tone on economy

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney told MPs on Friday that the turmoil working its way through financial markets will bring uncertainty, but the bank is ready to deal with any problems.

Carney was speaking to the Commons finance committee, which had asked him and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to share their views on the outlook for Canada’s economy.

Jim FlahertyCarney took a cautious tone in his remarks, explaining that while there are many threats to growth, the central bank is monitoring developments closely and has not made any major changes to its outlook recently.

“The considerable headwinds are now blowing hard,” Carney said. “[But] the bank has a wide range of tools and policy options it will continue to employ [to deal with the crisis].”

Carney renewed his call for productivity improvements, noting that U.S. firms have invested heavily in becoming more productive while credit is comparatively cheap.

“Their actual investment in machinery and equipment is well above what’s happened in Canada,” he said.

He also said the Canadian dollar’s strength is compounding the current crisis for Canadian firms.

Inflation data released earlier Friday morning — which showed that Canada’s consumer price index fell to 2.7 per cent last month — is well within the parameters the central bank expected in its last monetary policy report, Carney said.  (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday February 11, 2009

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 11, 2009

Carney maintains his rosy outlook

Even as the economic horizon darkens, the man who controls the levers behind Canada’s performance is still predicting the economy will pick itself up off the floor starting later this year and stage a strong rebound in 2010.

Nearly alone among respected forecasters, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has said the combined efforts of Canada, the United States and other industrial nations to counteract the global recession will begin to turn things around here by late summer.

Asked yesterday by an opposition MP if the central bank was not out “on something of an optimistic limb” in its predictions, Carney told the Commons finance committee: “We don’t do optimism, we don’t do pessimism.

“We do realism at the Bank of Canada. We don’t do spin.”

Carney, 43, a former Goldman Sachs executive and finance department whiz kid, expressed full confidence in the bank’s number crunching.

It’s based on hundreds of interviews with business people, bank loans surveys and 21 economic forecasting models, he said.

Still, Carney tempered his relatively upbeat outlook by cautioning that all forecasts are “subject to an unusually high degree of uncertainty” now because of the speed and worldwide reach of the current economic downturn. (Source: Toronto Star)