Canada’s Corrupt Liberal Government

If you set out to intentionally design a perfect target for a cyberattack, you couldn’t do much better than the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership contest now under way.

Foreign adversaries like Russia and China are well incentivized to try: The political impact of a well-organized ransomware attack against the party or one of the candidates (to take just one example of the kind of attack that could be launched) could be enormous – not necessarily in tilting the scales toward one candidate or another, but in delegitimizing the winner. A prime minister with a credibility problem helps Canada’s adversaries.

That’s a feature not a bug.

After years of speculation about his political aspirations, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney has officially thrown his hat in the ring to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader and prime minister.

As one of the race’s top three contenders, alongside deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland and Government House Leader Karina Gould, Carney has the endorsement of nearly a dozen current and former cabinet ministers.

“I’m doing this because I love our country,” Carney told a group of supporters and Liberal MPs at his official launch event in Edmonton, Alta., on Jan. 16, later adding “but it could be even better.”

CPC support remains at pre-Trudeau-resignation levels, more than two-in-five still prefer that party

January 27, 2025 – The Liberal leadership race is still in its early days, but it is renewing interest in the party among voters, especially with the prospect of Mark Carney as leader.

The former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney appears to have an advantage among prospective voters over his main rival in the contest, former Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland. That said, both still have to contend with Liberal Party members and make their case to be the next leader, and both still trail the opposition Conservative Party by a double-digit margin.

The challenge for any new national Liberal leader isn’t just to distance him- or herself from Justin Trudeau — though that will be hard enough. The task is also to offer fresh energy and tap into the actual concerns of Canadians. Why on earth, after 10 years of Liberal rule, should voters go back to the same old bowl of soggy cereal?

To his credit, Mark Carney took a good stab at it in his “Daily Show” interview, where he came across as self-effacing, serious and even a little bit funny. But the task ahead — back in this country — will be trickier.

With opposition parties threatening for weeks to defeat the government, U.S. President Donald Trump proposing hefty tariffs on Canada, and the Liberals appearing to regain political ground, some within the governing party are pushing for an early election to maintain the momentum and enthusiasm sparked by the leadership race, even before a potential House defeat.

“A defeat within days of becoming prime minister would not be a great start for the new leader,” said one veteran Liberal familiar with internal discussions, in an interview with The Hill Times. “If the opposition parties are going to defeat us, why wait for it to happen?”

As the federal Liberal leadership race takes shape, it’s looking increasingly like a two-way race between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney.

With the Liberals lagging significantly in the polls, the party is clearly looking for a saviour. But with a shared elite pedigree and apparent inability to defend anything resembling a coherent progressive vision, both Freeland and Carney are uniquely ill-suited for these populist times.

Economic inequality is at a record high and home ownership is increasingly out of reach for most young Canadians. The public is searching for both answers and help.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning a final wave of appointments to fill the 10 vacancies in the Senate before he retires in March, Radio-Canada has learned.

The move would allow him to leave a mark on Parliament for years to come, as these unelected legislators will be able to sit until the age of 75.

A source familiar with the matter says that the selection process for the future senators is already underway and should be completed before his departure. After proroguing Parliament earlier this month, Trudeau announced that he will leave power after the Liberal Party chooses a new leader on March 9.

The most hated PM in history is intent on causing Canada as much harm as possible.

My guess is he will deliberately sabotage tariff negotiations with President Trump.

h/t Mauser

Matt Gurney: Well, we seem to live in interesting times again. There’s a lot going on. I’ll start with an observation, and then pivot to a comment, and end with a question. Observation: Although he of course remains prime minister, Justin Trudeau has largely vanished from sight, and I don’t know if that’s a choice on his part or just the media’s attention moving on to the race to choose his successor. Comment: It seems to me that Mark Carney is way out in front in terms of support, and I wasn’t shocked to see Chrystia Freeland launch her campaign with a double-barrelled blast at Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre — she clearly thinks that she needs to differentiate herself from Carney by being more aggressive and scrappier. The question: Is that a good idea? Again Poilievre, sure. That’s fine. But Trump? I think she’s risking drawing his attention onto us to prop up her own sagging fortunes, and I don’t like it. Let’s just lie low for a bit and respond to whatever he does.

“I was informed by the Liberal Party of Canada that I will not be permitted to enter the leadership race.” https://t.co/iIv0QGRYPP

— Holly Doan (@hollyanndoan) January 26, 2025

Wonder what the truth is?

Saturday afternoon, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erksine-Smith held a small gathering at Beaches Brewpub in Toronto’s East end so that his special guest Mark Carney could make an “announcement” to the Beaches-East York community. Carney was given the rockstar treatment by this small crowd that gathered in the east of Toronto to see him — it was pure adoration.