LILLEY: Mark Carney sidesteps Canadian media but makes time for U.S. media

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Mark Carney is once again proving that he is elbows up and all in for Canada by skipping passed Canadian media in favour of American media.

As he’s done several times since officially entering politics in January, the Liberal Leader has sought affirmation of how awesomely Canadian he is by seeking out the blessing of an American.

This time, it’s Professor Scott Galloway, host of the Prof G podcast. Galloway is marketing professor at New York University, a consultant, author and highly successful podcaster.

One thing Galloway isn’t is Canadian, but that seems to be the way Carney likes his media.

Remember when this international banker decided to launch his bid for the Liberal leadership, he did it by flying to New York to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Since then, he’s done lengthy interviews with Jake Tapper at CNN, appeared on the BBC, and went on a podcast with Anthony Scaramucci whose claim to fame was being fired as Donald Trump’s director of communications, and who, like Carney, went to Harvard and once worked at Goldman Sachs.

Carney has been bypassing Canadian media requests for sit down and long-form interviews for months. While he went on with Galloway, he snubbed The Knowledge Project, a podcast run out of Ottawa by Shane Parrish.

Parrish isn’t a partisan political guy, he runs a well-listened to and watched podcast on business, growth, self-improvement – it’s not dissimilar from Galloway’s podcast, except it’s hosted by a Canadian.

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According to Parrish, he invited both Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre onto his show. Poilievre’s appearance was released at the beginning of the week and has been streamed more than a million times across all platforms.

Those are great numbers and similar to what Carney will get with Galloway, but a funny thing happened. The Liberal Leader suddenly cancelled, something Parrish announced on X on Thursday.

“That’s too bad; I was looking forward to offering unscripted questions and thoughtful followups,” Parrish wrote.

Neither Carney nor his campaign have commented on the matter, but Parrish stated several times that it was about editorial control.

“He agreed to come on but has back tracked on that. I’ve been told I’m seen as ‘risky’ because I won’t hand over questions in advance,” Parrish said.

It’s normal to agree on general topics for an interview, such as a discussion of the candidate’s economic plan, but not the actual questions. Some readers might be dismissive of this as Carney simply snubbing an unknown podcaster, but they should realize that Parrish hits a bigger audience than most of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Readers should also realize that Carney has also been snubbing most of the Parliamentary Press Gallery in their attempts to interview him at length rather than a simple question and follow-up at his news conferences.

It appears, they aren’t American enough or perhaps global enough for him.

Even when Carney does hang with Canadians, he prefers Canadians who have lived in the United States for years like Mike Myers or Neil Young – two celebrities who have endorsed Carney in this election despite not having lived here for decades.

Carney likes to keep his company head office in New York, his investments in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, pay his taxes in parts unknown and speak to media who aren’t based in this country.

But sure, Mark Carney is Captain Canada.

blilley@postmedia.com