EDITORIAL: The man behind the hockey mask

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The way in which Liberal leader Mark Carney has positioned himself as the only person capable of managing this country through perilous times is astonishing. 

In the U.K., where he served as governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, some observers  have been highly critical of his time there and are shocked that Canada is poised to make him prime minister. In addition to his lacklustre performance, critics say he was bad-tempered and thin-skinned.  

Financial columnist  Matthew Lynn, writing in London’s Daily Telegraph, said Carney was good at negotiating “trophy jobs” and fabulous salaries (at the BofE,  he was paid 600,000 pounds a year ($1.1 million). Carney was at best an indifferent governor and at worst a “disappointing failure,” said Lynn. 

“By the time he left office, Carney had created a mess which his successors have struggled to clear up.”  He says the Bank printed too much money and inflation spiked to 11.1%, compared to 5.2% in France and 8% in Italy. 

Lynn says if this country elects Carney, we won’t get the leader voters are expecting. “Canada is going to get a self-regarding technocrat who may have plenty of connections but has left behind a trail of wreckage in every major job he has ever held.” 

“Sure, PM will look good at the CV. But Canada will pay a high price for feeding his ego.” 

Jeremy Warner, deputy editor of the same newspaper, says that, among Brexiteers — those in the U.K. who favoured leaving the European Union — Carney was hated, “as the epitome of all that’s wrong with globalist elites.” He says his regular dressing downs became known as being given a “Carney-tasering.” 

Carney was also accused of politicizing the governor role. Ahead of a Scottish referendum, he warned that an independent Scotland might have to surrender powers to the U.K. if it wanted to continue using the pound. And before the 2016 Brexit vote, he warned that if the U.K. left the EU, it could trigger a recession. 

Carney has been all about folksy hockey analogies in this election campaign. In the U.K., he mixed more with the posh polo set. We should beware what critics have said of his past performance. Oh, and elbows up.