By most measures, Mark Carney’s resume is stacked.
Chief of central banks for two G7 countries. Investment banker. International climate finance expert. An economics degree from Harvard University. A masters and a PhD in economics from Oxford.
He even has hockey on his list of accomplishments, having played as a backup goalie for Harvard during his years there. That’s a plus for a politician in a country that just last week changed the time of a national leaders’ debate so it didn’t conflict with a Montreal Canadiens game.
But the one thing his resume lacks is also arguably the biggest job he’s ever sought: politician.
Carney, who turned 60 in March and has never before held elected office, has had to learn a lot on the job at a rapid pace.
He joined the Liberal leadership race in mid-January, won it in a landslide on March 9 and became prime minister on March 14. By March 23, he was on the campaign trail.
Carney’s first-ever general election has turned into a crash-course in how to campaign and be a prime minster at the same time. He’s spent countless hours wandering unfamiliar shop floors, remembering where to look for the cameras and figuring out how not to be awkward when shaking hands with scores of strangers – even as he deals with a chaotic White House upending the global economy in the background.
The glad-handing part doesn’t always come easy to him.
At a noisy manufacturing plant in London, Ont., on March 26, as he pushed a button to start a machine demonstration, Carney joked that “none of this would have happened” had he not been there to press it.
Later in the day in Kitchener, Ont., he was eager to share his new talent with Unifor President Lana Payne: “Did you see me press the button earlier?”
Carney has decades of experience reading market tea leaves in buttoned-up office environments full of worsted suits and wealthy wonks.
At a tour of a marine facility in Dartmouth, N.S., Carney joked with local officials at one point that his campaign staff keep telling him not to wear ties to events.
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“They’re always telling me to dress down. They’re always taking my tie off,” he said.
While he appears at ease in the presence of world leaders, he can seem unsure of himself at more mundane events.
When he met with B.C. Premier David Eby while campaigning in Victoria on April 7, he didn’t know where to plant his feet as he made some brief remarks.
When asked whether it’s more fun to be prime minister or a candidate on the popular French talk show “Tout le monde en parle” on April 13, Carney said that the two jobs are different. In one role, he’s dealing with constant crises – something he’s used to as an economic policy manager. On the campaign trail, he shakes a lot of hands and spends a lot of time at campaign stops looking at cows.
It makes for a stark contrast with his polished predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau — the celebrity politician who made it look like he lived to campaign and who clearly loved big crowds and taking selfies.
The father of four children, Carney is married to Diana Fox Carney, a consultant at the Eurasia Group firm where former Trudeau adviser Gerald Butts works. But he has kept his family and personal life largely out of the limelight, especially in the media.
Fox Carney has door-knocked for him in the Ottawa riding of Nepean, where he is running, and has introduced him at some rallies. But Carney has mostly campaigned without his family as a backdrop.
His chief rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, has made his wife Anaida a central fixture of his campaign and brings his children to campaign events.
Carney’s team also limited his exposure to national media during his campaign for the party leadership – leaving much of his training-wheels period in politics, when the stakes were much lower, to the international media.
His lack of experience has showed up in brusque exchanges with reporters challenging him in scrums, and he has made several obvious mistakes while speaking in public.
On a sleepless prime ministerial trip to the North just before calling the election, he mispronounced the name of Nunavut’s Premier P.J. Akeeagok and mangled the name of the Inuit homeland, Inuit Nunangat.
On the third day of the campaign, at a stop in Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S., he mispronounced star Liberal candidate Nathalie Provost’s name and forgot which mass shooting she survived. The gaffe quickly reverberated in Quebec but Provost herself shrugged it off as an accidental blunder that wouldn’t happen again. Carney also called her to apologize immediately.
None of these flubs proved fatal. Neither have opposition attacks seeking to tie him to the unpopular Trudeau, or the various instances when he bristles at reporters. Since entering politics, he has enjoyed an upswing in the polls and high favourables.
Abacus Data pollster David Coletto pointed out that, ironically, many of the Conservatives’ attacks on Carney citing his former role at the firm Brookfield also showcase his business experience.
“It’s almost like everything they’ve tried to undermine him with, at this stage anyways, has actually reinforced the reasons people like him – that he has experience, that he has this expertise in economics,” he said.
As Carney briskly moves past his various verbal stumbling blocks, his trip-ups on the road shine a light on his rough edges as a politician — for example, the way he sometimes punctuates his answers to questions with an uncertain “OK?” at the end.
At a Ukrainian café in New Westminster, B.C., Carney – who has accumulated significant wealth in his lifetime and has come in for scrutiny for not disclosing his financial assets – joked that he hoped his credit card would work when he tapped it against a payment machine.
At another point, he asked the café staff behind the counter whether he could shake their hands. They seemed confused by the suggestion.
Carney can also be quick to disarm a politically tricky situation.
At a stop in Gander, N.L., on March 24, a photo of Ivanka Trump came up in a photo book he was reviewing with two women who served as inspiration for the hit musical Come From Away. One of the women said that the president’s daughter is not her favourite person right now. Carney, with TV cameras trained on his face, offered up that Ivanka has done a lot for women’s rights.
His friends say there’s a flip side to those unvarnished moments: when Carney speaks about his values and vision for the country, that’s all authentically him.
“Mark is exactly what you see,” longtime friend John Premachuk told The Canadian Press at Carney’s Nepean campaign office opening. “What he appears to be from a values and genuine perspective is exactly what he is.”
–with files from The Canadian Press’ Dylan Robertson
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