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Michael Higgins: Mark Carney's 7 biggest rookie mistakes

His first year has been marked by attitude, foreign misadventures and lowered elbows

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Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to enjoy an extended honeymoon with certain segments of the public with his popularity at near-record highs.

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This, despite having made some glaringly rookie mistakes since taking office a year ago.

Michael Higgins: Mark Carney's 7 biggest rookie mistakes Back to video

Some of those errors reveal more about the man — his irritability, the ethical blind spots, the occasional historical illiteracy, an air of superiority — than the politician.

What were some of his most egregious rookie mistakes?

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Carney swept to power on the back of his “elbows up” slogan, so it was inevitable that he would be accused of putting those same elbows down when his posture towards President Donald Trump and the U.S. became more defensive.

In March last year, the elbows were decidedly elevated, but by August, they had been lowered as the prime minister dropped retaliatory tariffs on a slew of American goods.

Trump’s tariffs have hit Canada hard. Auto manufacturing fell 5.4 per cent year on year, according to a TD Economics report. Exports to the U.S. tumbled by 5.8 per cent last year, according to the Financial Post; real gross domestic product expanded by a measly 1.7 per cent and manufacturing shrank by 2.6 per cent.

The economic pain being felt in Canada cannot all be laid at Carney’s door. But immediately on becoming prime minister he raised expectations with his gung-ho rhetoric that this was a battle we could win, that he was the man to tackle Trump and that his experience as a banker would see us through the crisis.

It was all bombast and belligerence designed to hoodwink people. A more practised politician would have grounded their speech in realistic expectations for the public.

2. Foreign misadventures

If Carney’s policy toward the U.S. has been inconsistent, his other foreign endeavours have been incomprehensible.

On Iran, he has switched from fully supporting the U.S.-Israel action in February, to supporting it with regret, to musing about joining in the fight (“one can never categorically rule out participation”) to saying on Tuesday Canada “will never participate in it.” All this while staying silent for nearly two weeks after an Iranian missile on March 1 hit a Canadian airbase in Kuwait.

Flip-flopping on an issue is one thing, but this kind of inconsistency is likely to get you labelled Mr. Floppy.

Meanwhile, in January, Carney announced a “new strategic partnership” with China less than a year after saying the country was the biggest security threat facing Canada. He also dismissed questions about China’s appalling human rights record with his new favourite phrase, “We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”

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But Michael Kovrig, who was held prisoner by the Chinese for more than 1,000 days on trumped-up charges, warned in the National Post on Tuesday that Carney should look to leaders with more experience in the region as to how to deal with the Chinese.

“Carney would be wise to draw on the experiences of India, Australia and Japan with the CCP,” he wrote.

In July, the prime minister also announced his intention to recognize a Palestinian state, an act of reckless folly which will encourage Hamas terrorists, contribute to the demonizing of Israel and add to the appalling level of antisemitism in this country.

Recognizing a Palestinian state was an act proving that while the prime minister is a neophyte, he is a dangerous one.

“This ground holds memory,” the prime minister said in a January speech referring to the Plains of Abraham. However, a more experienced politician — or a person who’d lived in the country longer — might have realized that those memories depend on who is doing the remembering.

And the people of Quebec were very much insulted by Carney’s memory that the Plains of Abraham was the start of a beautiful relationship.

“What a gaffe, what a historic error,” Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge told Radio-Canada. “The Battle of the Plains of Abraham are the conquest, the culmination point where the English came and defeated the French and burned villages, etc.

“There’s nothing glorious in this.”

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the Parti Québécois leader, accused Carney of distorting history and showing contempt toward the province.

Only a rookie politician would try to fight old battles.

Occasionally charming, respected but not well-liked, with journalists sometimes feeling his “volcanic temper,” was how Britain’s Guardian newspaper described Carney’s attitude during his time as governor of the Bank of England.

That temper, and his casual disdain for the press, have also been hallmarks of his time as prime minister.

In November last year, he brushed off a reporter’s question about whether he had spoken with Trump by saying, “Who cares?”

It was a flippant remark highlighting the prime minister’s irritability at having to deal on an almost daily basis with troublesome questions. But it also provided a glimpse into Carney’s ego and showed his sense of superiority, a trait shared by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

While most people have little regard for the feelings of journalists, they probably also don’t want a snippy prime minister or a condescending one. Which brings us to the next rookie mistake.

5. Look inside yourself

After becoming prime minister, Carney put his assets in a blind trust, but there were still concerns about whether his position might put him in a potential conflict of interest.

When the CBC’s Rosemary Barton said she found it “very difficult to believe” there was no possibility of a conflict of interest given Carney’s extensive work in the private sector, the prime minister got testy.

“Look inside yourself, Rosemary,” he said. “You start from a prior of conflict and ill will.”

Another female reporter, this time from the National Post, also felt Carney’s irascibility a few weeks ago when she quizzed him about a briefing from an unnamed government official and his view on Indian interference in Canada.

“Well, we can debate whether you had a discussion that was not for quotation,” said Carney, displaying both his prickly side and his ignorance of how such briefings operate (reporters are allowed to quote the official, but not name him.)

“But if you want to read a quote from something that’s not for quotation … I would not use those words,” added Carney.

As the Guardian noted, Carney can be a charmer, but as he navigates the world of politics he might want to curb the curmudgeonly side of his nature.

One of Carney’s oddest decisions was to abandon the idea of having a budget in 2025. Instead, in May, he had Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announce there would be no spring budget and only a fall economic statement.

As anyone with a nugget of political intelligence would have explained to the prime minister, having Carney, the so-called economic guru, dispense with a budget was opposition gold and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre seized on it.

“Parliament has already been shut down for nearly half a year,” said Poilievre. “Now, in the face of serious economic threats, the Liberals don’t intend to present a budget this year. There is no roadmap forward, no economic vision, and no willingness to lead.

“This is not the leadership Mark Carney promised — it’s abandonment.”

Days after Champagne’s announcement, the government backtracked and announced plans for a fall budget.

It was a beginner’s blunder.

Early in his premiership, Carney had the chance to display strong moral leadership — but failed the test.

His opportunity arose when Paul Chiang, the Liberal candidate in the race for Ontario’s Markham-Unionville, spoke of the Chinese government bounty on Conservative candidate Joe Tay to a crowd in January 2025: “To everyone here, you can claim the one-million-dollar bounty if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese consulate,” Chiang said.

It was a disgraceful suggestion, but instead of firing Chiang from the race, Carney defended him.

“The comments were deeply offensive,” said Carney last March. “This is a terrible lapse of judgment by Mr. Chiang. He has apologized for those comments.”

It was also a terrible lapse of judgment by Carney, who should have immediately sacked Chiang, not stood by his side.

As Carney enters his second year as prime minister, he will have learned the lessons of his mistakes. But inexperience was only part of the problem; some of these blunders were caused by character flaws.

It is too much to hope for humility from the prime minister, but going forward Canadians should at least expect ethical conduct, a more consistent and principled foreign policy and a sense of political realism when dealing with the U.S.

Being less rude to reporters would be a bonus, but it is probably unrealistic.

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