Editor:
Am I wrong, or doesn’t it seem like our prime minister, Mark Carney, is following in the steps of Justin Trudeau in many ways, taking many of the same privileges he did, without considering costs or what Canadians may think.
Carney’s sudden rise to the top, and his popularity – at least in eastern Canada – still has me baffled. Did he really earn it, did the Liberal party popularity earn the sudden turnaround or is it just events that helped him along the way? I will settle for the latter.
Trudeau quitting, after literally being forced to resign, Trump and his tariffs and rhetoric of Canada as a 51st state certainly were a help to Carney. And being the new kid on the block, so to speak, Liberal party members who voted him certainly felt need for a change. And it hit the Conservative party, who a few months earlier, seemed destined for a clear majority victory suddenly dropped in the polls.
And voters at the polls in the election at the end of April, particularly, as I noted, in eastern Canada, seemed to also feel the same way.
As a result, we have Mark Carney as our PM, but with still much of the same Trudeau-era Liberals in his caucus and on his cabinet.
So has things changed much, and is Carney very much like Trudeau? Personally, I think he is.
One, he seems to have the same penchant for travel – on our taxpayer dollars, of course, just as Trudeau did. Since coming into office, Carney seems to have been out of Canada more time than he has spent here, jetting to what he seems to feel is this important meeting or that.
Another, it seems his government is ready to continue the Trudeau-era ban of new gas and diesel vehicle sales by 2035, even though, as one source suggests, they haven’t said how much it will cost taxpayers to pay for the new power plants and transmission lines to charge those electric vehicles. The source also notes having only new electric vehicles by 2035 (that’s just a decade away) is expected to raise car prices by $20,00 and eliminate nearly 40,000 jobs.
Just recently, areas of Ontario were without power due to the sudden increase in the use of air conditioning in homes and offices. Adding electric cars to the mix certainly shows a need for electricity, and how that will be generated, and how soon, is a big question.
Another thought on Carney is his pledge to bring the provinces together with a unified plan. With all of his running around the world currently, he doesn’t have time to work on that. He needs to be at home to work on that pledge, and quickly.
The west, particularly Alberta, have long felt alienated from the rest of Canada, especially by Liberal governments. Little wonder that there are some with the foolish idea that our province should separate. Those with that idea clearly haven’t thought through it and all the problems it would create for our province. I for one, feel, and know, we are far better off as a province of Canada, no matter how you look at it.
But Carney, if he acts quickly and properly on several fronts, including development of our resources here and across Canada, work towards pipelines to export our “clean” energy oil and gas to other countries, could end any thought of separation quickly.
And with no budget coming from him until this fall, he can continue to spend as he pleases, and when the budget finally does come it, it can easily show he stayed within it. Not illegal, but pretty sneaky.
Mostly, with the Canadian debt continuing to pile up, I continue to worry about the future for my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and beyond.
No, I am not convinced Carney is truly the person for the job. Do other readers have any thoughts to share?
Les Dunford
Clyde
