The Liberal Party of Canada is one of the most successful political parties in the world. It exists to win elections — which it does — by absorbing elements from the center right and center left, all while staying firmly within the broadly centrist (or, as they’d say, “pragmatic”) territory it has occupied for decades. Consequently, the Liberals have governed Canada for most of its history.
Just months ago, the party was trailing its Conservative rivals by more than twenty-five points. Now, heading into a general election, it’s once again favored to win — and to face the challenge of Donald Trump.
At the helm is the new face of the Liberals and Canada’s current prime minister, Mark Carney: a technocratic elite who once worked for Goldman Sachs and served as governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. Months ago, commentators — including myself — argued that he was out of step with the moment. He couldn’t win the Liberal leadership, could he? He did, resoundingly. He couldn’t revive party fortunes, could he? So far, he has.
At first glance, Carney didn’t seem to fit the angry, populist, anti-elite mood that Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had tapped into with his rousing — if hollow — pro-worker, antiestablishment, and government-slashing crusade. Carney looked like a mismatch for the moment: a stolid, down-tempo cosmopolitan, the kind of figure that MAGA politics and contemporary Canadian conservatives are primed to make mincemeat out of. He was Davos Man — the quintessential technocrat, a…
Auteur: David Moscrop
