Tough act to follow.
Jean Chretien, that is. Following Canada’s best living speech-maker is a pretty tall order. Newly minted Liberal Leader Mark Carney was never going to beat Chretien at the podium.
And, actually, now that we are on the subject, Carney’s daughter Cleo was actually a bit better than her old man, too. She was charming and fun.
Carney? He ain’t going to set the world on fire with his speechifyin’, Virginia. Personally, I’ve been more excited by bowls of Cream of Wheat. I didn’t fall asleep during Carney’s victory lap, but I gave it some serious consideration.
Bro, Chretien opened for him. That's like getting Zeppelin to open for a local pub cover band. https://t.co/zaEuPk4t5V
— Joseph Angolano (@JosephAngolano) March 9, 2025
But we all knew that already about Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. He got hired to do those jobs — and he did them well, by all accounts — precisely because he was not a flame-breathing ideologue. He was a banker. So let’s be honest with ourselves: When you go in to the bank to talk about your mortgage, do you want the person on the other side of the desk to sound and look like Kid Rock in the midst of two-week bender in Vegas? Nope.
In other words, Carney’s bland, boring banker persona is not his weakness: Paradoxically, it is actually his secret power. At a time when the world is quite literally on fire and when we are facing a threat to our very existence, being dull is arguably a big asset, not a liability.
So there are three main reasons why the Carney Grits have obliterated Pierre Poilievre’s 30-point lead. One, Justin Trudeau left and the country was quite happy about that. Two, voters suspect the Conservatives secretly (and some not so secretly) love Trump.
Three, Carney is a typical Canadian: He is calm, collected and courteous. He is the polar opposite of the ugly American — in this case, Trump. Carney reminds us of our better selves. We don’t want a prime minister who acts like the guy we despise.
But there is a risk in all of that, of course. The Canadian who has given Trump pause — more than any other — is Doug Ford. Ford has been anything but polite about Trump. He has been very direct and very tough about the American president — threatening to cut off his power, removing American booze from LCBO shelves, going on Fox News to growl about betrayal. Ford has metaphorically taken Trump into the boards, many times, and Canadians have cheered every single time.
That, then, is the danger that Carney faces. And it is the worry that many Canadians will have, too: That the new Grit leader will be the typical Canadian. And when Trump treads on his loafers, Carney will be the one who says he’s sorry. As some Canadians are wont to do.
Right now, we want a fighter — like Ford, like Chretien, like Don Cherry. We don’t want to become the doormat of North America. Knowing this, and toward the end of his speech, Carney talked about dropping his gloves in a hockey fight. But literally no one can picture Carney dropping his gloves for a fight. (He was a backup goalie, after all.)
In future leaders debates, the aforementioned Poilievre and Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet are going to make mincemeat of Carney. But as my Postmedia colleague Tasha Kheiriddin said to me on my podcast this week, that still may not matter. Sometimes voters want a leader like Ontario’s “Brampton Billy” Davis — someone calm, cool and collected. Not Bob Probert.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
Who will be the one who fights best for Canada? That’s what elections are for. We are going to decide that. And the election, if the Liberals are smart — and not all of them are dumb — will happen very soon. Conservatives may think it is wise to keep demanding an election right away, but I don’t think they are.
What if Trump abruptly calms down? What if someone medicates him? The best asset of the Liberal party, right now, is the rabid, crazier-than-an-outhouse-rat Trump. Why do Tories think having an election now is in their interest? Why not wait until the fall, when Trump has inevitably moved on to some other issue?
Liberals won’t wait. They’ve benefited from Trudeau’s departure, yes. They aren’t going to wait for Trump to move on to his next chew toy.
They are going to go now — because even with a bland banker at the helm, they might just pull this off, the biggest political comeback in recent Canadian political history.
And Chretien, who I know rather well, would smile about that.