GUNTER: Mark Carney shows Liberal arrogance with comments on Danielle Smith
“We’re sending Doug Ford on to Fox News to show them that we’re not messing around up here,” Carney said to cheering Liberals.
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Did Liberal Leader Mark Carney hit the trifecta?
On Sunday in Victoria, at just his second campaign rally in the West in two full weeks of electioneering, Carney made sneering remarks about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Then he displayed the typical smugness of central Canadian elitists insinuating that they and only they have the intelligence and sophistication to see the way forward for all Canadians.
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That’s two Ss — sneering and smugness. But did Carney’s remarks also hit a third? Sexist?
In scoffing at the idea of Smith being able to help in Canada’s trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump, Carney praised Ontario Premier Doug Ford and used his full name. However, he referred to Smith only by her first name, “Danielle.”
“We’re sending Doug Ford on to Fox News to show them that we’re not messing around up here,” Carney said to cheering Liberals. “And we’re going to send Danielle next. Well, maybe we won’t. We won’t send Danielle. That’s a bad idea. Strike that.”
Now, admittedly, politicians and commentators sometimes refer to their opponents or people they are seeking to belittle by their first names alone.
For instance, in one press conference before he left office last month, former prime minister Justin Trudeau spoke indirectly toTrump and addressed him as “Donald,” knowing full well that the egotistical Trump hates that. (It seemed only fair, though, after Trudeau had had to bear Trump calling him “Governor” Trudeau on numerous occasions.)
But referring to a male counterpart by his full name, while mentioning a female one only by her first name is also often a sign of the speaker’s sexism.
Maybe Carney was just being a sneering Laurentian, but maybe he also doesn’t have as much respect for female leaders as he should.
Almost certainly Carney, like Trudeau before him (and Martin and Chretien and Trudeau Sr.) was showing his contempt for Alberta.
Carney praised Ford (who like Smith is a Conservative, at least in name), for Ford’s appearances on Fox News. Then the Liberal boss suggested Smith should be the next one sent to the popular, right-of-centre news service, as if she hadn’t appeared there already.
But Smith has made frequent forays into the heart of Trumpland, both personal appearances and media interviews. Since Christmastime, Smith has appeared on American media outlets and popular podcasts more than 30 times, including several times on Fox News and Fox Business.
It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s my guess her blitz of American outlets and streaming services has been as effective as Ford’s far fewer appearances, very likely more effective. Between the two of them — Ford and Smith — they have done a good job entering the lions’ den and correcting a lot of the misconceptions among Trump supporters about Canada and its trade practices stoked by Trump’s delusions and lies.
Carney has made a lot out of the fact he was raised in Edmonton, but his scornful references to Smith, while at the same time lauding the Ontarian Ford, show that he is just another snobbish, central Canadian.
During the 2000 federal election, on a campaign swing through New Brunswick, then Liberal leader and Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he didn’t like the way Albertans did things. He confessed to preferring to “do politics with people from the East.”
Carney has also promised, in English, to build pipelines to the East Coast and West Coast, then in French promised never to build one across Quebec. He has also promised to continue the harsh emissions caps introduced by his Quebec lieutenant Steven Guilbeault (when Guilbeault was Trudeau’s environment minister), which most experts acknowledge can only be achieved by shrinking the oil industry.
Nothing has changed for the Liberals with their change of leader. Why would Albertans give these folks another chance when their new leader has shown himself to have the very same attitudes as his predecessor?
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