What happened to the Mark Carney who promised to make things better?
Grading Mark Carney's handling of the economy after one year as PM.
Mark Carney was elected because he was a former central banker, he was seen as competent in dealing with the economy. He’s been PM for a year now and the economy isn’t doing well, it’s struggling and not just due to Trump’s tariffs.
On this week’s edition of the Full Comment Podcast, I interview Bill Robson who recently retired as President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute.
Bill is a fair and thoughtful guy and when asked to grade Carney’s performance on the economy, he doesn’t let him off easy. Too many Canadians are just willing to say that Carney is handling Trump (he’s not) and therefore every Carney does it just fine.
That doesn’t help Canada thrive.
We need to change.
Enjoy my chat with Bill Robson and leave a comment on what grade you give Carney and how you think we could turn the economy around.
From the official show notes:
When he first became prime minister a year ago this month, Mark Carney vowed to improve affordability, build badly needed projects quickly and make Canada more resilient and competitive in the face of President Donald Trump’s trade antagonism. As William Robson, president emeritus of the C.D. Howe Institute, discusses with Brian, the situation on all those fronts isn’t much better and, in several respects, worse than before. Canada keeps getting poorer, our fiscal situation is worse, the investment climate remains uncompetitive, projects we need aren’t happening, and Carney’s fiscal moves, from the GST grocery refund to green subsidies, are as economically misguided as the policies from the last guy. Carney can’t just blame Trump for it all. (Recorded March 20, 2026)
First off - I have not listened to podcast Brian has posted today - however, I will. I was never a fan of Mark Carney - I did not like the way the Liberals jammed him through to their leadership convention, how they kicked Ruby Dahlia and Chandra Arya out of the party because they had the effrontery to run against him - then they stripped Arya of his safe Liberal Ottawa riding seat - a seat he had held for well over a decade and the party just handed it to Carney instead. That was a sham. So right off the bat, something smelled. That scent unfortunately has lingered. I was, like Brian Lilley, willing to be optimistic however - I was willing to wait and see what he would do in office. My patience has long since run out. Carney is the master of talking but not doing. He tells the west one thing then he tells Quebec the opposite. He flies all over the globe - pretends he is signing meaningful trade deal's only to come home with great fanfare from the CBC and CTV and The Toronto Star while only clutching meaningless M.O.U.‘s- documents that are not worth the paper they are written on. He has in reality not signed one trade deal with anyone while his medla lapdogs have somehow convinced a sizeable chunk of the Canadian population that somehow all of Canadas problems are due to Donald Trump. Meanwhile - Trump rolls into the very countries that Carney has just left and leaves with multibillion dollar trade deals - including oil and gas, yet somehow Trump is portrayed in Canada as the unreliable one, the guy who is not willing to negotiate with us. The facts do not support that assertion. Carney has announced not one new pipeline, not one new LNG facility, not one new refinery, not one new port. He has offered nothing to the Canadian auto, steel, aluminum or lumber industry other than loans. He has instead cozied up to China and their auto and steel industry instead. Heb has failed to deliver on housing and on food prices - all of which can be easily solved by getting rid of taxes places on this economy by the Liberals themselves - and at this time of rampant unaffordability in this country - the most hated tax of all, The Industrial Carbon Tax is about to go up from $ 95 a metric tonne to $ 110 a metric tonne on April 1. The Liberals are saying nothing about it. When that impacts fuel and groceries and clothing and everything else that is manufactured here, transported here, warehoused here and retailed here, driving the costs up even higher - who benefits the most ? The government because the higher the prices go:- the more they collect in GST from the price increases.
Carney does not care about Canada or Canadians- he cares about one thing - monitizing carbon credits. He is only interested in setting himself and his uber wealthy WEF insiders up at the center of a new Marketplace - where carbon credits will be bought and sold. First he needs countries to follow him into buying into the whole carbon credit scheme - he will sell it to them as a revenue stream - carbon producers will need credits to stay in business and they will get these credits from governments or low carbon producers who have credits to sell, and where will all of these credits be available for sale - why in the new carbon marketplace - and who will be at the center of this new carbon marketplace - why Mark Carney, Michael Bloomberg, Brookfield and their uber wealthy WEF friends who they have let in on the scheme. This is where Carney and Brookfieid see themselves and that is why he came back to Canada after his private initiative to do the exact same scheme failed ( GFANZ) and his reputation amongst the international investment banking system was sullied. Taking over as a leader of a country gives him a new angle and some credibility and that’s what this is all about. That is why he travels so much and has not done a damn thing for the Canadian economy- or trade - he could care less, he has bigger fish to fry and Canada is only a means to an end to getting this thing off the ground. Unfortunately Canada - and the Liberals who support him the most, are the ones who are going to pay in the end.
He is for Brookfield & himself ‼️