New prime ministers do change things, but usually not so abruptly and ruthlessly when succeeding someone from the same political party

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Mark Carney has rejected the key policies and governance approach of his immediate predecessor — who was from the same political party — with a breadth, speed and remorselessness that may have no parallel in Canadian history.

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Market and political forces have driven Carney to abandon his cherished commitment to stopping climate change by means of net zero. When as minister of natural resources in the Harper government I ushered into law the “one project, one review” approach in 2012, I was accused by other parties of “gutting” the regulatory process. But though the Trudeau Liberals repealed the law as soon as they were elected in 2015, it’s now the mantra of the prime minister and his Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson. Back in the day, Liberals also derided Stephen Harper for proclaiming Canada a “natural resources superpower.” But now Carney has borrowed both the phrase and the ambition and Liberals and the legacy media love it. His rapid turnaround proves the truism that being ahead of one’s time can be politically dangerous.

Carney was ideologically aligned........

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