Prime Minister Mark Carney waves to the media as he departs 10 Downing Street in London on March 16.Alastair Grant/The Associated Press
One year later
Re “He’s useful in a crisis – but is he any good at politics? A look at Mark Carney’s first year” (Opinion, March 14): Mark Carney, private citizen, was, for years, really a politician.
Anyone who knows senior bureaucrats should know only too well how they are first and foremost ambitious political beings, saying and doing whatever needs to be said and done to move up the ladder to the top. That is a senior bureaucrat, classic Machiavelli.
So, please: Mr. Carney, now Prime Minister, has always been an ambitious politician.
Catharina Summers Kingston, Ont.
Mark Carney seems like he was the kid in school who always did his homework and shared some of his answers with others. He knows how to talk with people and flourished in two jobs leading the banks of Canada and England.
But as he moves Canada in the direction of “more guns, less butter” (we Canadians do love our butter) my nagging question is this: Is Mr. Carney really a Liberal, or is he closer to a Progressive Conservative or, on several issues, simply – gasp – a Conservative?
For now, I sit in awe at reporter Shannon Proudfoot’s satirical prose and the wonderful evolutionary drawings of Joe McKendry. But I will soon become restless when it becomes ever more clear that the nearly disappeared NDP was crucial at helping the Liberals evolve.
Ron Charach Toronto
“For a political rookie, Carney has demonstrated a remarkable flair for deploying symbolic gestures with heft.” That is so true. Considering the act he followed, almost anyone would look good.
However, he has managed to travel the world and hobnob with the elite in order, it seems, to avoid dealing with the main issue with which he was tasked: tariffs and deals with the United States.
Canadians are coping with the fact we’ve shed 84,000 jobs in February. Inflation is looming because of the war and, even though we have one of the world’s major reserves of oil, we are facing huge price increases.
As a politician, Mr. Carney has aced it in his attempts to appease all sides. He’s managed to master the art of blarney.
Leslie Martel Mississauga
I think the late journalist Murray Kempton provides a better, more enduring template to explain Mark Carney’s victory and his continued popularity in the age of Donald Trump.
Of contemporary politics in 1996, he wrote that “we have entered upon an era when candidates lighten the sullen hearts of the majority of us not for who they are but for who they aren’t.”
Toby Zanin Toronto
“He’s not above pop culture diplomacy, either, donning the famous Heated Rivalry fleece on the red carpet and inviting Hudson Williams to climb him like a koala in a eucalyptus tree.”
Honestly, I couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe Mark Carney and Donald Trump should take a lesson from Heated Rivalry: Spend some cozy time behind the scenes and dial things down.
Peter Murchison Toronto
Locals only
Re “Canada’s second chance in the global LNG race” (Report on Business, March 14): We are protected from having to pay much higher international prices for natural gas, exactly because we lack the capacity to export liquefied natural gas. That is terrible for producers, but great for consumers in Canada.
Contrast that with those few Canadians who still heat their homes with oil. They will be hit with huge prices spikes for a suddenly scarce commodity.
It amazes me that those who oppose more LNG terminals don’t harp on this fact, as it is one of the most powerful arguments they have. And those who insist that taxpayers fund LNG expansion omit that Canadians would be paying twice, once as taxpayers and again as consumers.
Damir Susnjar Peterborough, Ont.
Zero-sum
Re “Restructuring of John Risley’s empire revamped to win over CRA, former business partner” (Report on Business, March 14): Once again, we read of a corporate bankruptcy where the major loser appears to be the Canada Revenue Agency. In other words: all of us. How does it happen that the national treasury is so often a substantial and frequent unsecured creditor?
The CRA pursues me for quarterly installments which prevent me from owing a substantial sum when I do my annual return. Do corporations not have to make installments?
Most galling to me is when corporate indebtedness is for HST/GST sums, taxes already paid by citizens to the corporation. The CRA went after me with considerable energy for $167 last year, discovered by a review of my return. Now I read of millions of dollars owed by a corporation, which it appears will be unpaid.
On behalf of millions of individual taxpayers, I am not happy.
Ian Guthrie Ottawa
Behind the scenes
Re “Fight at the museum: Sasha Suda and the legal battle at the Philadelphia Museum of Art” (Arts & Books, March 14): This brought back memories of my time as a cultural organization board member.
I joined solely because I loved the institution and wanted to see it thrive. For a number of years, it did well in meeting its mandate and engaging with the community.
But apparently, behind the scenes, there was a small group of board members who unilaterally took action on certain items when they should have been brought before the board, and who decided to put in place a new CEO without a proper search. Fortunately for me, my term on the board was over and I did not have to deal with the consequences.
I can only quote from the article: “Sadly, a few trustees put their own egos and need for control before the institution’s long-term best interests.”
Hope Smith Calgary
Illicit intrigue
Re “When authorities ban books, we all lose” (Opinion, March 14): I’m a reader. I’m against book burning, I’m for book banning.
Sometimes it’s well-intentioned, sometimes it’s not. Galileo was banned but read; Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned but read, my mom had a copy in the 1950s.
Book banning never fully suppresses. Indeed, it excites and makes the avid reader more attentive.
Larry Rosenberg Hamilton
Wait, what?
Re “We’ve got more content than ever. Why can’t we pay attention to it?” (Opinion, March 14): I told my wife to check out Mark Kingwell’s essay on reading. Or was it about attention? Or art? Well, something like that.
Anyway, I didn’t really read the whole thing, but it was pretty good, I think. She said she’ll skim it later, if she has time.
Larry Davies Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ont.
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