Mark Twain may or may not have said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Whether it’s an actual quote or an apocryphal saying doesn’t matter as much as how that statement reveals the patterns that show up in historical events.
Witness the current political situation in Canada. A few weeks ago, now-former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned, and the Liberal Party replaced him as head of the party with banker Mark Carney, who will now take over as prime minister. It smacks of the Democrats switching horses midstream in 2024, but the only difference is the Liberals chose Carney instead of the Democrats foisting Kamala Harris on the party after Joe Biden’s ouster.
As Carney prepares to face off against the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre, whose populism and bluster have drawn comparisons to Donald Trump, some people are taking note of Carney’s internationalist elitism and lack of political experience. He has never held elected office, having only served as a bureaucrat, and that’s garnering criticism.
A recent New York Times piece refers to Carney as “an unelected technocrat,” while journalist Tara Henley writes, “In avoiding press scrutiny, Carney reinforces the impression that he’s not just unelected but unaccountable” (emphasis in the original).
The Spectator’s James Snell writes that Carney reminds him of a failed Liberal Party leader from the recent past. Forgive the long blockquote, but it sets up some important context:
But things are not all roses for Carney. He puts me in mind of Michael Ignatieff, who was Liberal leader before 2011 and Justin Trudeau. Like Carney, Ignatieff was a professorial elitist who hit the heights abroad. Ignatieff was an academic at Cambridge and Harvard. He made TV documentaries for the BBC and spoke to Charlie Rose in New York about nationalism and belonging. He wrote a whole shelf of books and essays in the New York Review about foreign countries and his own Russian ancestry. When talking on American TV, he had this habit of referring to America as ‘my country’. He called Britain his ‘home.’ Ignatieff returned to Canada in 2006, as his book Fire and Ashes says, because a delegation of Liberal grey cardinals sought him out in his American home as a future prime minister in waiting.
Ignatieff was soon cut down to size – after he had attained the Liberal leadership – by a brilliant Conservative slogan: ‘He didn’t come back for you’. Ignatieff was a man who did not live in Canada for many years, who had few ties to Canada. But he felt entitled to rule it as a philosopher-king regardless. The Conservative government knew a winner when they were onto one.
Snell concludes his article by writing, “There’s no reason to think the old slogans wouldn’t do again. They are still true, after all. Mark Carney: he didn’t come back for you.”
Related: What's Next for Canada After Trudeau's Resignation?
In other words, Carney is an elitist who thinks he’s entitled to become prime minister of Canada as the once-strong (and equally elitist) Trudeau slinks away in defeat. It’s a fascinating parallel to Biden riding off into the sunset while Harris took over the presidential race.
Right now, President Trump’s rhetoric about making Canada the 51st state and his tariff stance have kindled a wave of patriotism among Canadians that is giving the Liberals a resurgence in the polls. Is it enough to derail Poilievre’s momentum? Not so fast, says Henley.
Despite the unifying nature of external threats from the Trump administration, the “rally around the flag” effect is likely to be temporary. The reality is that Canada’s internal troubles won’t be overshadowed for long. We face numerous domestic crises, from the cost of living and immigration to housing, all of which exert pressure on voters’ daily lives.
We cannot forget, either, that we are in a populist moment, both in this country and abroad. Profound anger at the elites that failed ordinary working people is not likely to evaporate overnight. Carney very much belongs to the establishment. He is deeply embedded in the same class that allowed many of the above-mentioned Canadian crises to spiral out of control. There is no evidence, so far, that he rejects the policies that got us here, or has fresh ideas to dig us out of the mess that we’re in.
Will Canada’s general election echo November’s election here in the States? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out, but so far, Canada has shown us some history that rhymes with ours.
