Roundup: Mark Carney undermines his Bank of Canada successors

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When it was announced that former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney was going to be speaking at this weekend’s Liberal convention, we got the usual amount of tongue-wagging from journalists and pundits who assumed that this would be the time when he announced he was running for the party. The Conservatives put out a nasty press release that considered him the “future leader of the Liberals,” as though this was a replay of the Michael Ignatieff trajectory. Carney didn’t make any announcements of future plans, but he did the next worst thing – he stated that he planned to support the Liberal Party in any way he could.

This is bad. This is very, very bad. I have written about this before, but the Bank of Canada is an institution that needs to be scrupulously independent, much like the Supreme Court of Canada. Monetary policy is not to be trifled with, and the separation between fiscal policy (government and the Department of Finance) from monetary policy (Bank of Canada) is sacrosanct in our system. We had a bona fide political scandal about maintaining this separation decades ago, which was the Coyne Affair, and it led to changes that guaranteed the central bank’s independence. This is why, much like Supreme Court justices, former Bank of Canada governors need to maintain their scrupulous independence after office, because the danger of tainting the institution is too great. Because what are we going to see now? All monetary policy decisions will be viewed through the lens of partisan politics and opportunism – which is toxic to the institution. Opposition MPs will start badgering and hectoring the current Governor when he appears before committee and assuming partisanship in his advice and policy direction – something that we are already getting dangerously close to, as Pierre Poilievre tried to go after the Governor over the decision to buy bonds through the current fiscal crisis (which is perfectly sound expansionary policy at a time when we were seeing deflation instead of the kinds of inflation that the Bank is trying to target). This matters, no matter how many Liberal partisans seem to think that this is something they can just handwave away because he said nice things about them.

If Liberals had a modicum of respect for institutions that they claim they have when those institutions are under attack by the Other Guys, then they wouldn’t keep doing this, and yet it happens time and again. They undermined the Senate, the Governor General, and now the Bank of Canada. They have become an absolute menace to the systems and institutions that are at the heart of how our country operates. This is a problem.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau called on younger Canadians to take the virus more seriously because they are more susceptible to the new variants, which are deadlier.
  • The North is vaccinating at a good pace, and they hope to achieve herd immunity by May (which is important as they have very little ICU capacity).
  • Alleged RCMP spy Cameron Ortis has a trial date – September 2022.
  • The Conservatives are having difficulty over a coherent message about the budget, saying they won’t support increased spending – unless it’s on things they want.
  • Jagmeet Singh is taking credit for pushing on an open door and “forcing” the government to extend pandemic supports, as his pitch to his party delegates.
  • Annamie Paul is downplaying any attempts to undermine her leadership while also saying she will “root out” any discrimination in her party ranks.
  • Heather Scoffield looks at the reaction to yesterday’s exemplary job numbers, and what needs to happen to make them more stable as the pandemic wanes.
  • My weekend column looks at the discourse around Basic Income, especially at this weekend’s Liberal and NDP conventions, and why it’s incredibly problematic.

Odds and ends:

Here is Maclean’s obituary of Prince Philip, flaws and all, while Carolyn Harris explains how he helped to modernise the monarchy.

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Mark Carney undermines his Bank of Canada successors”

  1. I disagree completely with you. He has been gone from government for several years now, worked for another country and now with the UN. Government employees are banned for 2 years only from holding office where their knowledge might impact.

  2. The Conservatives undermined much worse. They’re an existential threat to Canada ever since Harper’s malignant influence mutated them into essentially a branch plant of the GOP. Iggy proved to be not much to write home about, so it’s possible that Carney-mania is more sizzle than steak. That being said, I think it’d be some pretty sweet irony if he was to take out Poilievre and leave him screaming into the void with his conspiracy theories about the Great Reset and the secret Liberal cabal.

  3. I am afraid that one of the Lessons of Trump is that nobody gets to be “non-partisan” about anything anymore. This is because everything is political now – getting a vaccine, wearing a mask, arresting someone for a crime, travelling anywhere, offering asylum to refugees, watching TV, driving a car, etc etc
    So everyone either has to pick a side, or else it is assigned to them by the opposition.

  4. Isn’t the Bank of Canada becoming far more important to the execution of fiscal policy since the utter implosion our economy? I couldn’t disagree with you more.

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