LILLEY: Carney didn't need to 'suspend' his campaign – he's hiding

Article content

Mark Carney spent Friday playing the role of prime minister rather than campaigning after a rough week on the trail.

Let’s face it, the Liberal Leader isn’t good at campaigning, and he doesn’t like answering difficult questions about China or the media.

Did the campaign decide to pull Carney from the trail after he snapped at a Globe and Mail reporter asking about him meeting with front groups for the dictators in China?

“Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t believe everything you read in The Globe and Mail,” Carney said Thursday.

He was responding to a Globe report that said he had met with officials from a group called the Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada, an organization that supposedly seeks to foster ties between Canada and China but, in reality, exists to push Beijing’s message here and influence politicians and the Chinese Canadian community.

“I’ve never heard of this group, okay? Never heard of this group. Certainly didn’t have a setup meeting with this group, full stop. So check your sources before you write things like that,” Carney said.

The journalist Carney was responding to hadn’t written the story, but once again his voice was filled with condescension. He doesn’t like people beneath him asking questions. Also of note, Carney has repeatedly been nastier with his words and tone with women as compared to men.

So, is that when the campaign decided it was time to go back to Ottawa and “suspend” his campaign as they claimed, or was that the plan all along. We had a bit of a debate about that discussing the third week of the election while recording the Full Comment Podcast late Friday afternoon, look for that episode on Monday.

Clearly, the Liberals know that having Carney do a regular campaign where he tries to sound human and likable isn’t working as well as having him play prime minister in Ottawa. So, they had him “suspend” the campaign and return to Ottawa for a meeting of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations.

Carney was apparently in the meeting room super early, before 8:30 a.m., to avoid reporters and photographers waiting outside. The meeting ran from 10 a.m. until just after 12 p.m. at which point he made a brief statement.

“In the last week, there have been a lot of developments in terms of us, U.S. tariff policy reactions from others, including China, really marked tightening in financial conditions of slowing, signs, the initial signs, of slowing in the global economy, impacts that we’re starting to see in the unfortunately, in the Canadian economy, particularly in the Canadian labour market,” Carney said.

There were a few more words in his run-on sentence, but not many more, and then he repeated what he said in French and fled without taking any questions.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Maybe because there have not been material changes to Canada’s position regarding U.S. tariffs over this last week. He would have been asked about that statement. He would have been asked about why he was pausing his campaign when nothing new was happening for Canada. He probably would have been asked about China or his tax situation.

Over the last week, Carney has faced multiple questions about his use of tax havens for the investment funds he set up while working at Brookfield Asset Management. There were previously reports of two funds set up in Bermuda – a well-known tax haven that Carney hasn’t wanted to talk about – and on Thursday reports emerged of a third fund he set up for Brookfield in the Cayman Islands, another tax haven.

The Liberal team has clearly made a decision that campaigning is bad for their candidate, and hiding in Ottawa is a good thing.

When the debates come on Wednesday and Thursday, look for all of the other party leaders to have plenty of pointed questions for Mark Carney.

blilley@postmedia.com