Mark Carney says he’s started at the top ‘many’ times before

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OTTAWA — The idea of becoming prime minister of Canada in a matter of weeks despite having never won an election does not seem to worry former central banker Mark Carney, who says he has started at the top many times in his career.

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On his way to a private event in Ottawa with his supporters on Thursday, Carney briefly stopped to speak to reporters flanked with many ministers who have endorsed him.

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“I’ve had many jobs where I came in at the top,” he said, when asked what he would say to someone who thinks being prime minister is not an entry-level job. “I came in at the top of the Bank of England, Bank of Canada, in terms of the United Nations and climate change.”

He served as Bank of Canada governor during the 2008 economic crisis before becoming governor of the Bank of England when the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union. More recently, he served as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.

Carney insisted that he intends to put the economy “back on track” as a team.

“You see the team here,” he said, pointing to the elected MPs standing behind him.

An hour earlier, the Conservatives had dispatched MP Michelle Rempel Garner outside of a nearby restaurant where they thought the Carney event was taking place to complain that he had not addressed the media since his campaign launch in Edmonton last week.

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Until then, only the Canadian Press had managed to catch up with Carney, while he was skating the Rideau Canal on Wednesday to ask him about his plans for the carbon tax.

He promised to present a plan to address climate change “that works for everyone.”

“This man… could, quite possibly, become prime minister in about six weeks,” said Rempel Garner on Thursday. “He’s never held elected office of any form, he doesn’t sit in Parliament, and he could be making Canada’s policy at a time of national crisis.

“And yet, a week after launching his campaign… we have heard absolutely nothing, zero, crickets from this man about what he would do as prime minister.”

Liberal ministers and MPs who were entering the Carney event accused the Conservatives of being “afraid” of a new Liberal leader who is not Justin Trudeau.

“There’s a lot of fear,” said Employment Minister Steven MacKinnon. “I think Canadians know that the challenges we face around the world and here at home are going to require complex solutions by people of experience and not just pithy slogans.”

Ontario Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre should indeed be afraid of an incoming opponent who has lots of economic experience.

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“Mark Carney is a highly credible individual who has a reputation around the world for being able to deal with economic crises, and Pierre Poilievre is a career politician. He’s got no experience,” he said.

Rempel Garner said it is not about Conservatives, and that Canadians are frustrated.

“We are at a time where… I have people in my community that can’t afford to eat, and we’ve got these guys shuttering Parliament. We have tariffs… being threatened on us by the American government, and they’re having a cocktail party.”

National Post
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