When Canadians waved goodbye to former prime minister Justin Trudeau last March and welcomed Prime Minister Mark Carney to Parliament Hill’s executive offices, a sense of relief glided across the country. There would be no more hijinks and juvenile behaviour dominating our news headlines. The adults had arrived, and with U.S. President Donald Trump breathing the fire of manifest destiny and calling Canada the 51st state, it could not happen fast enough. Promising to unleash Canada’s resources, establish economic order, and rebuild a nation in decline (both literally and figuratively), the central banker from central casting took centre stage. First impressions made Canadians feel secure. Watching Carney, in moderate tones, explain Canada’s vision to his countrymen and those abroad helped him build momentum for an election he would soon call. Less than ten days in, Carney visited the Governor-General, and Canadians headed to the polls on April 28, 2025. What has the past year told us about our prime minister? What has it told us about Canadians? What does it tell us about the future?
PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY
The prime ministership pursued Carney as vigorously as he pursued it. On an inevitable collision course, the two entities seemed sure to meet. As 2025 began, the office, filled by the son of one of the most influential characters in Canadian history, seemed too large for the man, an unsuitable fit, and a responsibility far beyond the grasp of young Trudeau, especially when his tormentor, Trump, rose from the ashes to exact revenge. On the sidelines for several years, the rumours of Carney’s ascension ripe for the taking peaked after Trump’s election in November 2024 and return to power in January 2025. Having humiliated the unpopular Trudeau, Trump seemed to take as much delight in taunting his nemesis as he did Canadians. Overplaying his hand, if that mattered to him, Trump ironically orchestrated the end of the Trudeau era, but the beginning of a new regime that would oppose him methodically and skilfully, as well as disingenuously.
Carney became a vessel into which Canadians poured their hopes. For those fearful of an American invasion, he was Captain Canada, ready to wear his cape in defence of our home and native land. If alarmed by rising prices or the affordability crisis, they were confident that Carney could wrestle inflation to a truce. Concerned about national unity? Carney would bring Canadians together from east to west, north to south, and end the divisions that have plagued us coast to coast. Infrastructure headaches? Immigration problems? Healthcare challenges? The growing deficit? The answer was written in the winds lashing against Peggy’s Cove or on B.C.’s shores: Carney could save Canada as a Swiss Army knife could attend to all the problems in the wild.
Canadians of all vintages believed in Carney to an almost irrational degree, believing he knew answers that no one else in public life could provide. When he went to Davos earlier this year and delivered a speech in his slow, steady manner, many reported that he had threaded a needle so tight that he was now an international superstar. Despite stubborn economic numbers, disappointing progress on relations with the United States, and unsatisfactory results with resource development, new home construction, or deficit reduction, the prime minister’s poll numbers have increased. He has attracted enough “floor crossers” to form a majority, and nothing he does, whether it works or not, diminishes the rave reviews he gets. Many on the right and many judicious observers see inflated expectations. Our journalistic elites, the academic Left, the progressive entertainment field, and the Laurentian gentry class are taking a pass. They may know the dangers that lie ahead, but a failed Carney project outweighs the risks that a Conservative alternative might pose.
Carney has a blank cheque from most of those in Canada who shape opinions and inform voters. Carney may be the most powerful man to have ever led Canada because of the existential crisis Trump poses to our overlords and the aspirations Canadians have deposited in the prime minister. His words are the coin of the realm to large swaths of the intelligentsia and the Canadian public. In Canada’s 158 years as a nation, no prime minister may have held the levers of power with as much imprimatur as Carney, a leader who fell short of a majority electorally but will cobble one together through poaching opposition members and by-elections. Like the odds-defying act of addition by subtraction, our prime minister seems capable of multiplying the loaves to feed thousands in the eyes of his admirers (one wonders if this reaction exists to counter those in MAGA who refuse to admit Trump’s failures).
CANADIANS
At the moment, Canadians content themselves with trusting Carney’s judgment. After watching the dystopic coverage of the Trump era, filled with exaggerations, misinformation, and debunked stories about the president, Canadians felt betrayed by their American neighbours who dared return the “convicted felon” to office. Posts on social media on election day in 2024 included the patronizing one calling on Americans “to do the right thing” and vote for vice president Kamala Harris. Besides its less-than-serious nature, the comment spoke for millions who felt that if America could choose Trump, then something evil lurked in the soul of our southern cousins. Despite two centuries of peace between the two nations, Trump was the coup de grâce. Mistakenly, Canadians have accepted the saturated news of Trump as Hitler, Trump the dictator, and Trump the racist. If anyone cared to notice, Trump serves as Israel’s greatest ally. The Jewish people have never had a better friend in the White House, hardly the stuff of Third Reich proportions. There will be congressional elections this fall, and Trump’s party will probably lose seats, not the usual path dictators follow. As for racism, this author suspects anyone not endorsing the Left’s DEI agenda and “open border” policies fits the bill as a racist. Whatever describes “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS), Canadians more than most, persist in approving or disapproving of an action based on whether Trump initiated it or blocked it. Their distaste for all things “Trump” lands them squarely in Carney’s camp. As long as they fear, loathe, or hold the American president in contempt, Canadians will surrender unprecedented latitude to our prime minister to negotiate deals, take actions, and overhaul our economic infrastructure to prevent Trump’s hostile takeover. This unbalanced and ill-advised response to Trump could come with a heavy price tag to our financial well-being and our democratic institutions. Ceding power to Carney at the rate Canadians have over the past year could leave us with a centralized PMO (Prime Minister’s Office), wielding the power many have accused Trump of hungering.
THE FUTURE
Canada’s Opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, expressed concerns that more of his fellow citizens should consider. In recent interviews with Peter Mansbridge and Joe Rogan, the Conservative Party leader tried to remind Canadians that Trump’s time will soon end (January 20, 2029). Canadians and Americans have shared a peaceful border, traded, intermarried, started businesses, and been neighbours for over two centuries. As John F. Kennedy said in his address to the Canadian parliament on May 17, 1961: “We share more than a common border. We share a common heritage, traced back to those early settlers who travelled from the beachheads of the Maritime Provinces and New England to the far reaches of the Pacific Coast. Henry Thoreau spoke a common sentiment for them all: ‘Eastward I go only by force, Westward I go free. I must walk towards Oregon and not towards Europe.’ We share common values from the past, a common defence line at present, and common aspirations for the future-our future, and indeed the future of all mankind.” Then, in the most memorable part of the speech, he spoke the words that should walk Canadians back from the ledge, reminding us that “Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.” The future looms heavily for Canadians, recalling a long-standing friendship without exaggerating the irritations of the present moment. Once again, let’s hope Kipling’s admonition to keep your head while all those are losing theirs does not allow us to seek refuge from one threat to our existence only to find ourselves relieved of our liberty or our economic independence. Canadians will soon need to ask themselves whether empowering Carney as a CEO benefits the national interest.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
