Can Carney Find Pragmatism?
Post 86 | Pulling for Canada
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and elections capture it with an X on a ballot sheet.
To say I am disappointed with the outcome is an understatement. Yet healthy democracy and civil society demand we accept the result of our collective penciling even when we disagree.
And so here we are.
Elections are grubby affairs that poorly reflect reality, while encouraging and amplifying the worst - instincts, behaviours and utterances. This one was no different.
Intelligent debate on serious topics never happened. Vote garnering promises and money giveaways masqueraded as policy. Sweeping and toothless statements were thrown about - intentionally open to wide interpretation.
Fear was stoked, emotions poked and reasonability yoked.
Every pollster, prognosticator and expert prophesied what would befall us ranging from nirvana, to chaos, to dissolution of our confederation. Yet the brutal reality is that no one knows where even pristine governance could ultimately land us - as happenstance, geo-political forces, and bounces of the proverbial ball always conspire to gum up the works. And goodness knows we haven’t experienced even decent governance in a long time.
While I struggle tamping down my irritation at fellow voters I will not further litigate the collective decision. Post-election dissection would distress me no less than pre-election projections, so I’ll preserve my sanity by leaving hindsight analysis to others while reading none of it.
I can’t care about water that’s flowed beneath the bridge.
But please don’t share with me your voting logic, or thoughts on whose strategy was errant, or the wisdom of the masses, or any other opinion you may have on the election now complete - because my current state of calm may not survive it.
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
~ Mark Twain ~
What now?
Despite my many disagreements with this not-new regime preceded by their decade of failure, I truly hope they can discover governing competence and wish them success.
Loving my country as I do, it’s the only pragmatic response.
But to offer a second understatement…I am skeptical.
What I’m watching for
Over the coming months, I’ll be looking at all the big ticket stuff to determine how we’re tracking – spending reduction, productivity measures, fiscal management, energy and mining regulations, immigration policy, trade diversification, military investment and much more. These will each take time to fully come into view, though we should see the broad intended trajectory of each over the next few quarters.
And I’ll be watching what happens with US relations, though still angered at the weaponized fear of it that drove our election results.
I will surely write more on this topic in near future, but by way of brief comment - I disagree with engaging anything more than perfunctory discussions with Trump. Negotiating with a knife to our throat while he breaks previous commitments is errant in logic, weak in tone and a terrible precedent. I’m looking for reversion to all CUSMA terms before we seriously engage, while including circuit breakers in any stepwise discussions. Then slow-roll negotiations into 2026 when Republicans may be in line for a mid-term shellacking that could shake up US power dynamics.
But in the next few weeks I’ll have my eye on the following - with concrete and symbolic implications being tied in.
Cabinet Structure | Several weeks ago I wrote of what a well structured departmental makeup could be. Cabinet definition is an early indicator of any new government - speaking to vision and policy priorities. Its structure will tell us something of Carney’s practical approach for handling Canada’s biggest issues, while signaling direction on challenging topics like regional divisions, and foreshadowing intentions on social issues that hijacked the last government.
Cabinet Leadership | Hand in glove will be who leads each Ministry. Will they be capable and serious individuals with backgrounds attuned to their department? Will Carney re-appoint chronically incompetent and divisive individuals we’ve come to distrust over the past years? Or make a change to fresh faces with less baggage and potential capability? And will he continue Trudeau’s damaging DEI policies by forcing a 50/50 gender parity Cabinet despite fewer female than male MPs being elected?
Mandate Letters | Think of these as marching orders from the PM to each Cabinet Minister. Public release of them began only with Trudeau, and they laid bare his social fixations and worst impulses translated into directives foretelling the mess we’ve lived through. It’s unlikely Carney will make these public but, if he does, will they foreshadow the pragmatic technocrat he is purported to be?
The great part of low expectations is ease of exceeding them. Just get out of bed in the morning, do the basics and you’re likely to be ahead on the day.
But Canada is in such a stitch-up on so many fronts that this government must perform at a level far beyond baseline and we have no proof to support such an expectation.
And yet…
I hope they will discover a level of competence and pragmatism not yet seen.
That they will govern with fiscal sense.
Focus on growing and enabling; not restricting and regulating.
Empower the private sector to drive productivity through de-regulation, while downsizing government and reducing their heavy hand.
De-constrain our oil, gas and mining companies, not further ban and restrict them.
Recognize the fragility of our national unity and govern with concrete policies and tone to incorporate our disaffected western provinces.
Quell the instinct for pushing social structures like DEI that divide by attributes rather than unite by commonality.
Recognize the losing proposition of telling the free market what to do - it’s named as such for a reason.
Significantly temper their environmental crusade with practicality and reason.
Focus on Canada first, not changing or leading the world.
Protect Canada as top priority – our economy, our sovereignty and our history - not an idealistic version of it but the proud one that it is.
I am looking for a government to govern with quiet competence.
Whether this one can do that remains to be seen.
Expectations are low and skepticism high.
But there’s a chance.
Stay tuned and stay pragmatic.
Great article, well written as always.
I have finally finished Carney's book Values, and his ideas therein are not far off mine. The question of trust in the implementation remains. Carney has 3 key tasks before him. Appoint his cabinet, meet with Trump and submit a budget. I believe how he goes about completing these will tell us a lot about our prime minister.
"Protect Canada as top priority – our economy, our sovereignty and our history - not an idealistic version of it but the proud one that it is." This might seem a bit narrowly focused and even petty but we need to protect the Canada defined in our Constitution. The Canada that currently "is" has moved away from the Canada we agreed to in 1982. That Canada was, and should be, a federation of provinces with clearly defined responsibilities and a federal government with a different set of responsibilities. Protecting Canada is to honour that arrangement because it's key to making the country work for everyone. Canada is a very large country encompassing regions that have very divergent interests. We can live happily and successfully together if the regions are allowed to prosper according to their unique circumstances as the Constitution allows/demands. Recently our federal government cannot resist expanding it's purview into areas of provincial responsibility imposing the will of more populous regions on less powerful regions simply because they can. That’s not the Canada I signed up for.