Blast from the recent past: my thoughts on Carney's election from just after he got elected as leader

April 22, 2025

I wrote this a while ago, before I made this blog.

The king is dead, long live the king! Trudeau is out and Carney is in. Through our entirely typical and normal democratic process in Canada, economist Mark Carney has been elected leader of the Liberal Party and therefore prime minister, at least for a few days. Promising to move the communistic Liberal Party of Canada rightward, Carney has begun his reign as leader by revealing exactly who he is. Many of us did not have to be told who he was, on account of his career, but it was enormously kind of Carney to inform us nevertheless.

In particular, three of Carney’s initial moves have demonstrated that he is, charitably, a “blue Liberal.” Firstly, Carbon Tax Carney has promised to do away with his namesake, utterly gutting Pierre Poilievre and the Tories’ singular line of attack against the Liberals. Carney will move ahead with axing the tax, despite the fact that carbon pricing is a reasonable and smart policy by neoliberal market-based standards. What will Carney propose instead to fight the utterly existential threat of climate change? I suspect he will build pipelines to totally own the United States, likely trampling on Indigenous land and water rights in the process.

Secondly, Carney has promised to cut taxes for wealthy people, axing the modest capital gains tax increase championed by Chrystia Freeland. As an international banker and capitalist through-and-through, it is unsurprising that Carney has decided to pursue such a pro-billionaire agenda. To thoroughly misquote greater thinkers than I, capitalists are not wont to give up their capital. If they did that, they wouldn’t have it anymore. Expect more of the same from Carney.

Lastly, Carney has made the absolutely horrible decision to pick genocidal maniac Marco Mendicino as his (interim, it would seem) chief of staff. Mendicino served as the Minister of Public Safety previously before he was let go for being unpopular. Facing (mostly unfounded, in my opinion) backlash for his handling of the trucker convoy and COVID-19 in general, Mendicino decided to perform a hard pivot, redirecting his focus on vehemently defending (and simultaneously denying) Israel’s genocide in Palestine. Mendicino was one of three Liberal MPs (alongside Ben Carr and Anthony Housefather) to vote against a heavily watered-down NDP motion that, to name just two examples, called on the government to demand a ceasefire and reaffirm that colonial settlements are, in fact, contrary to international law. It is telling that Mark Carney has picked one of the most rabidly pro-genocide Liberals to lead his office.

It would seem that the Liberals are following the same playbook the Democrats followed in the previous election: advancing reactionary policy under the guise of liberalism. Famously, this strategy worked fabulously well for the Dem. Make no mistake; there is no such thing as a “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” viewpoint. The two positions are entirely incompatible. Economic policy and social policy are inextricably linked. If one is not willing to contribute their share of taxes to contribute to the wellbeing of their community, they do not hold socially ‘liberal’ views, they only want to appear as if they do. It is not enough simply to not hold anti-trans, racist, or misogynistic views. Given the current political environment and the ongoing horrors of capitalism, anybody who is not actively anti-racist, who does not actively fight for trans rights, for Palestinian freedom, to name just a few examples, is demonstrating that they are actively in favour of these harmful systems. Mark Carney is nothing more than another capitalist seeking to subjugate and oppress us. Ultimately, it will make little material difference to Canadian workers whether the corporate-backed Conservatives or the equally corporate-backed Liberals win the next federal election.