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)