Comforting sounds
Carney is shaping up to be less of an interim PM-designate than an excuse -- a social license -- to turn one lost decade into two.
*Presses play on an early 2000s indie-emo classic*
I don't feel alright
In spite of these comforting sounds you make
I don't feel alright
Because you make promises that you break
Apologies, to start, for two weeks since the last column. We managed to work in a podcast, but the days have been long, the comms, fundraising, and creative responsibilities have drifted from 40 hours a week to 50 to 60, and I just so happen to be advising a candidate* or two.
(*Editor’s note: In a volunteer, private-citizen capacity. Unlike the new Liberal leader and interim PM-designate, I would disclose a financial conflict.)
The latest? Some of the conjecture on Twitter is just that, and mostly wish-casting, but the election call is expected sometime between this weekend and March 23, and the actual E-Day dates being thrown around appear to be April 28th or May 5th. (Reschedule or hold off on booking that spring break bash accordingly.)
Behind the scenes, candidates are being prepped, war chests are being filled, and plans are being finalized.
Newly-minted shadowy Liberal interest groups have sprung up, too, like snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils, those first flowers of spring (if they voted for mass economic replacement and taxing single-mothers for keeping their children warm).
(At least my not-so-shadowy interest group was founded by my grandfather, picked up the Right Hon. Stephen Harper as a president for a spell, and occasionally makes it in front of millions of viewers, and into the papers, on merit.)
And as for some of the latest work? Check out this spot that dropped today, if you’re feeling so inclined.
It’s in these moments of Carney “sneakiness,” to borrow from CPC comms (the nicknames aren’t working anymore, are they), that if one is capable of tuning into his frequency — and if his handlers even let him within 50 ft. of a live microphone — that the entire operation becomes clear.
He (vaguely) says some of the right things. He plays the notes, but they’re off-key. Even his coronation speech, after a highly dubious Putin-esque return on a 37% voter turnout, was the worst of the night.
It’s as if it doesn’t matter how he performs — because it doesn’t.
The man is already, in effect, his very own walking, talking tariff threat. By putting the squeeze on Canadian businesses at home, he’s playing right into Trump’s hands.
It’s abundantly clear there can be no Canadian economic recovery — or even independence — under the failed 'Net zero' insanity of yesterday.
This media moment — his quasi-inflated polling bump — doesn’t track. He’s been propelled by a few thousand Liberal boomers in Canada’s wealthiest neighbourhoods (read friend of the Substack Cosmin Dzsurdzsa below), those completely untethered from the real economy for the last ten years, and the anxieties of Globe Opinion columnists hoping to use this opportunity to moon-shot mass immigration to end the Canadian dream for Canadians, so they can get food delivered cheaper to their Rosedale manors.
"On all the big economic questions of the last five years, Carney has been wrong, and I have been right," says Pierre Poilievre, correctly.
With that being undeniably true, that Carney’s extortionist ‘Net zero’ protection racket went belly-up the world over; that his businesses profited off of African pipelines, U.S. coal, and the tacit enablement of Russian and Chinese energy while Canadians and Europeans were rendered cold, weak, and broke; and yet, somehow he’s still flirting — like the reanimated 13th century Transylvanian noblemen that he resembles — with a 32-35 percent voter share, says everything.
He’s not a leader, and less an interim PM-designate than a permission slip for more of the same.
He’s an excuse — a social license — to run back the last ten years, not in the hopes of making it right, but in choosing to be willfully wrong; to spite global trends, and the tens of millions here in Canada, each and every day, who are telling us that this is broken, that they’re close to giving up.
“I think this is the winning message. For 10 years, Mark Carney has been wrong on literally every single economic issue. Now, after adopting the Conservative's long-standing policies on carbon taxes, pipelines, inflation, income taxes, etc, Carney claims to be an economic mastermind.
“If he's so good at economics, why did it take him 10 years to realize Trudeau was wrong and the Conservatives were right?” (Peter McCaffrey, Alberta Institute)
He’s no mastermind, just as he’s no good with the numbers that count. After all, that “reverse Midas touch” helped advise this country for the last few years of Trudeau ruination, setting the stage for an enfeebled country to be shoved, repeatedly, into lockers and swirlied for its lunch money by the 47th President of the United States.
What he’s very good at, however — and his handlers know this too — is getting results for his shareholders. That the average Canadian voter, suffering under the real economy, doesn’t get to take part in those Zoom calls and Bohemian Grove-like weekends in Laurentian cottage country is why these comforting sounds don’t leave us feelin’ alright.
A (still) majority of Canadians know when someone isn’t working on our behalf. After the last ten years, we’ve developed a keen eye and ear for it. We learned from the best.
This time, it’s as obvious as a guy with three passports, zero communication skills or willingness to talk to the Canadian press, multiple conflicts yet to be revealed, open and early support from Beijing’s United Front, and who is hauling an asteroid field of economic devastation in his wake.
That won’t matter to many, but it matters to you, and in this moment, that’s enough — because you’re the future that Canada is waiting for.
You notice the mirthless central banker hitting notes off-key, you notice the uninspired, barely-there effort to run the exact same team under a banner of “change,” you help rouse the rabble, grow Canada’s common-sense community, and would never dream of settling for less.
In a tightening race — with stakes, on some files, that amount to good vs. evil — I know who I’m still betting on.
Sound good to you?
Alexander Brown is a writer, Director of the National Citizens Coalition, and part-time politico. To support the best-selling Acceptable Views Substack, join the email list for free or chip in with a paid subscription.
THIS!!!! 🎯
“After all, that “reverse Midas touch” helped advise this country for the last few years of Trudeau ruination, setting the stage for an enfeebled country to be shoved, repeatedly, into lockers and swirlied for its lunch money by the 47th President of the United States.”
Most frustrating, but not at all surprising, that the Canadian legacy media sees Manchurian Mark as a suitable saviour. Pierre needs to shine in debates with this candidate, although it might be a challenge to get the visiting banker to participate in more than one.