Mark Carney is preparing to replace Justin Trudeau and become Canada’s next Prime Minister. He says that he was “made for this moment”. But is he really?
You’ve got to give it to Carney; he’s got quite the impressive global resume. He’s got advanced degrees from some of the finest international universities in the world (despite claiming Canada ‘gave him his education’), He spent years at Goldman Sachs, then became the head of the central banks of Canada and the UK. He even got appointed the UN’s Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, all the while founding several net-zero companies committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, which he believes is an “absolute imperative”.
However, the corporate movement behind net zero is falling apart. As European economies—who pride themselves on their progressive environmental policies—are languishing as deindustrialization spreads, most evident in Germany, Europe’s industrial heavyweight. High energy costs and stringent climate polices are taking their tolls on these developed economies. Despite decades of increasing climate regulations and carbon taxes, fossil fuels still comprise almost 70% of Europe’s primary energy mix, most of which comes from imported oil and gas.
Yet despite all of this, Carney sees Europe as a role model. His vision & plan is for Canada to become a “global leader in a clean economy”, leaving the U.S. behind in the dust of a Canadian green transition—despite Canada’s current economic engine being based around fueling these exact industries. Nonetheless, this hasn’t stopped Carney from coming up with a new environmental plan.
Carney’s plan scraps the unpopular consumer carbon tax, something Conservatives have been calling on the Trudeau government to do for years. What he’s not telling you about, disguised in bureaucrat-ese expected from a two-time central banker, is his complex industrial carbon credit scheme that adds stringent climate regulations to our already vulnerable economy. Most concerning, though, is that Carney’s carbon plan introduces a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: a tariff on countries who don’t—in Carney’s former UN Climate Envoy eyes—pay enough for carbon emissions.
Carney’s climate plan would hit Canadian imports from almost every country outside of Europe. It’s basically the carbon tax but puts Canada at a huge trade disadvantage in a time where Trump has declared a trade war against us and our very way of life. As hard as it is to believe, Carney’s climate plan is even worse than Trudeau’s.
Even if, as Carney claims, he wants to build pipelines to expose our raw resources to other markets, his answer depends what audience he’s speaking to—and what language they speak. In an English-language interview with the CBC’s Rosemary Barton, Carney said that he supported “the concept” of pipelines, but it would require provincial approvals. But, in a different CBC French interview, he all but ruled out pipelines going through Quebec. He’s just saying what the audience wants to hear.
A 2050 net zero energy transition means building a larger, more complex and expensive energy system to replace the one we already have. For Canada, that new system would cost over $2 trillion by Carney’s own reckoning.
Let’s be absolutely clear: the economic impacts would fall heaviest on those less well off. Elite globalists like Carney and Trudeau don’t really care about the ‘costs’ though, but developing countries like China, Brazil, and India, responsible for over 70% of global emissions, do care, and they aren’t buying in. Neither does the U.S., which has a President who is in favour of the “drill, baby, drill” mantra.
A balanced and realistic transition to a more sustainable and cleaner energy is needed for the long-term health of our planet; but the key word is balanced. Carney’s 2050 net zero quest is not that. His plan would drive costs up, increase our debt, reduce international competitiveness, chase investment away, all the while dividing Canada: the opposite to what Carney claims.
Trump will be delighted that Carney won. He would much prefer to face off against an idealist elite eco-banker like Carney instead of a politically seasoned and hardened pragmatist in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Canada simply can’t afford Mark Carney. It’s time to put Canada First, and help elect Pierre Poilievre Canada’s next Prime Minister.
Dave Wilkin, Burlington Conservative Association Director
