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USA Today
02-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Canada Day turns into grande fête and rebuke of Trump's call for becoming 51st state
Canada Day has taken on new significance to many Canadians this year, given Trump's unwelcome suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state MONTREAL ― Canadians didn't take Donald Trump seriously at first when he suggested Canada should become the 51st state. 'They thought, 'He's just fooling around. He's just joking. He's just being provocative,'' said Daniel Béland, director of McGill University's Institute for the Study of Canada. Not anymore. So hundreds of Canadians flocked to Montreal's Place d'Armes, a square in the city's Old Montreal neighborhood across from the Notre-Dame Basilica, on July 1 to kick off Canada Day, a time to celebrate the 158th anniversary of their country's birth and all things Canadian. Volunteers wandered through the crowd and handed out miniature Canadian flags, which people waved while posing for selfies. Others affixed the red-and-white drapeaux to shirts, shorts and hats, turning them into a fashion statement as much as a political one. From a park bench, Filippa Contarini watched the flag-waving crowd and counted all the things she loves about being Canadian. 'Our beautiful country, our very open, very free, liberal country – I love it,' said Contarini, a small Canadian flag tucked into the back strap of her hat. 'I love the French. I love the English. I love it all.' One thing she doesn't love? Donald Trump. 'He's like a big bully – that's how I see him. And he's very ignorant,' she said. 'He keeps saying Canada should be the 51st state. No, no, no. That's never going to happen. This is him being an idiotic child.' Across the Great White North, Canadians marked Canada Day with parades, festivals, pledges of national unity and uncharacteristic displays of patriotism. Canadians are usually known more for their friendliness and hospitality than for showy demonstrations of pride. That is associated more with their bigger, boisterous neighbors to the south. But Canada Day has taken on new significance to many Canadians this year, given Trump's unwelcome suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state, his threat to slap punitive tariffs on Canadian products and his dismissive attitude toward their leaders, especially former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he repeatedly mocked as 'governor.' 'The world is changing. Old friendships are fraying,' Trudeau's successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney, said in a Canada Day message posted on social media. Carney never mentioned Trump by name, but there was little doubt who he was talking about when he said Canada's economy has been impacted 'by a trade war we didn't start.' But 'as the world becomes more divided and dangerous,' he said, 'Canadians are uniting.' More: Canada scraps digital services tax to advance stalled US trade talks Swell of Canadian pride Recent polls back him up. Canadian pride surged after Trump took office in January and opened his war of words and tariffs. A survey in March by the Harris Poll Canada, in partnership with Petro-Canda, reported a major shift across the country and noted that Canadians were rallying together with a renewed sense of unity and pride that seemed to be growing every week. Seven in 10 Canadians said they were proud to be Canadian, up from 63% a month earlier. Eight in 10 said it is important to buy Canadian products and support Canadian companies. Ninety-two percent said regardless of what happens with Trump's tariffs, they intend to give more support to Canadian companies in the future. Patriotism surged even in Quebec, where for decades a separatist movement has pushed for independence from Canada. Flag makers have reported a boost in sales of the Canadian Maple Leaf. Businesses have embraced a 'Buy Canada' movement and removed U.S.-made products from their shelves. T-shirts warning that Canada is not for sale have appeared in souvenir shop windows. A poll taken in May by the Association for Canadian Studies suggested that Canadian pride dipped in Quebec after the federal elections in April, when Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau as prime minister. Even so, 76% of people in Quebec said they were proud to be Canadian. Timeline: A look at key moments in Trump's feud with Canada There's no real mystery what's behind the swell of patriotism, Béland said. 'The timing of this is quite clearly in sync with the rhetoric about the 51st state and the return of Donald Trump to the White House,' he said. Canada Day celebrations across Montreal From Place d'Armes, the Canada Day crowd marched through the streets of Old Montreal, a brass band leading the way. Elderly couples held hands. Parents pushed strollers down the streets and hoisted young children on their shoulders so they would get a better view. A woman in a wheelchair rolled through the crowd, a Maple Leaf windmill attached to the back of her chair, twirling furiously in the breeze. Down brick streets, past art galleries, souvenir shops and restaurants, the procession marched for nearly a mile to the Old Port of Montreal, along the St. Lawrence River. There, thousands of people attended the official festival, which kicked off with a 21-gun salute, followed by the raising of the Canadian flag and a swearing-in ceremony for two dozen new Canadian citizens. Dozens of booths offered family-friendly activities, such as drawing and face painting. Shirley Desserud, a high school teacher who was born in Niagara Falls, Canada, but is spending the summer in Montreal, wore a white T-shirt that announced, 'I Am Canadian.' It's no longer enough for Canadians just to be proud of their heritage, she said. Because of Trump, they have to stand up and proclaim it. 'We're friendly, we're polite,' she said, 'but we're really pissed off at your president.' Canada is larger than the United States in terms of total land area, but the U.S. has a lot more people and power. Desserud recalled former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin Trudeau, once saying that being neighbors with the United States is like sleeping next to an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast might be, Trudeau said, everyone is affected by its every twitch and grunt. 'Now,' Desserud said, 'the elephant is on crack.' Kirk Anderson from Denver, who was visiting Montreal with his family, said he decided to attend the Canada Day festivities to show solidarity with America's northern neighbors. 'I would like to tell Canadians that there are a lot of us in the United States who do not want Trump to be president and who love Canada as it is,' he said. More: Trump is the 'X factor' as Canada elects a prime minister Ida Degano, who was with her husband Benny, said Trump's suggestion that Canada become part of the United States is offensive. 'It hurts my heart,' she said, adding that Trump should watch his mouth 'because he cannot rule the world.' Degano, who lives outside of Toronto, came to Canada from Italy in 1953, her husband came four years later, and together they have been able to build a good life in their adopted country, she said. To Americans whose views about Canada may be shaped by Trump's remarks, Degano offers a suggestion. 'Come and visit Canada and see how we live,' she said. Follow Michael Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Can opposites attract? Mark Carney represents everything Trump hates
On the day after Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada's 24th – and, he will be hoping, not final – prime minister at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, the official residence of the governor general of Canada, the continent of North America now holds its breath. Carney has little time to luxuriate in the satisfaction of his first ever job in politics being as leader of the second largest country in the world. Nor can he embark on a victory tour. He won't even have time to celebrate his 60th birthday on Sunday. Instead, he has a noise complaint from the brash resident downstairs to deal with – and given the state of relations, as well as an impending general election, he'd better get to it as soon as possible. Because the ballroom at Rideau Hall may be vast, but it could barely contain the elephant in it on Friday: Donald J Trump, conquistador-in-chief, troll of the century, neighbour from hell. Trump's occasional talk of annexing Canada, making it the USA's 51st state, continues every few days, when he remembers. Tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries persist, as does an almost unprecedented level of tough talk, by Canadian standards anyway, in the face of naked aggression from the Maga camp. And so Carney has to do something about it. 'To win the next election, the new prime minister must quickly prove he is Canada's best hope of managing relations with the White House,' so reckoned Politico this weekend. It sounds simple, when you put it like that. It's a little more difficult when you take into account that Carney represents absolutely everything Trump detests in a politician. Carney has said his first foreign visits will be to Europe, rather than 550 miles south to Washington DC. But sooner rather than later, he'll have to address the elephant in the room in person, and put his fabled technocratic charm to the test. Will they (get on), then, or won't they? Let's compare and contrast. We're off to a bad start here, if the mission is to prospect for common ground. Carney is considered dull even by people who mean to pay him a compliment. This week Daniel Béland, the director of the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University, described him as 'a boring guy who, in general, doesn't have a lot of charisma.' But that's no bad thing, he added, given it lends Carney 'the image of a reassuring guy who knows what he is talking about.' Whatever you make of Trump's politics, 'boring', 'uncharismatic', 'reassuring' and 'knows what he's talking about' are not words or phrases that ever appear in the same sentence as his name. Ultimately, Trump is a bombastic former real estate mogul turned minor TV star who muscled his way into politics through sheer force of personality. His personal life is a soap opera, his attitude to the truth nonchalant, and his moral compass forever broken. He abhors 'the establishment', has no interest in etiquette and the natural order of things, and nothing, but nothing, is ever his fault. America first, but Trump firster – which is a word you can imagine him using, actually. Carney, on the other hand, is a Harvard graduate who made a fortune as an investment banker before becoming deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He became governor of the central bank in 2008, aged 42, steering the country through the financial crisis. George Osborne called him 'the outstanding central banker of his generation', and lusted after him so much that he made him the first foreign governor of the Bank of England. Carney is a Davos man, an ardent globalist and a committed environmentalist. 'Communicate clearly, frequently and honestly,' he advised in his 2021 book Value(s): Building a Better World For All. 'You can't spin your way out of a crisis. The truth will come out.' Oh dear. Common ground rating: 0/10 Things don't get a lot better here. 'We respect President Trump – President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,' Carney said on Friday, after being sworn in. He has worked with Trump at international meetings, he pointed out: 'In many respects, part of my experience overlaps with that of the president – we're both looking out for our countries. But he knows, and I know from long experience, that we can find mutual solutions that win for both.' Trouble is, they barely see eye to eye on anything in politics. Carney's a staunch defender of the kind of multilateral order Trump spends much of his time seeking to destroy. His focus on climate policies is entirely out of step with Trump's 'drill, baby drill' preference. And over the last decade, their attitudes to deal-making have been laid bare. Take Brexit as an example: 'I would say [the UK is] better off without [the EU], personally, but I'm not making that as a recommendation, just my feeling,' Trump famously said. During the protracted negotiation period, Trump later accused Theresa May of 'wrecking Brexit' and insisted 'I think that the UK allowed the European Union to have all the cards. And it is very hard to play well when one side has all the advantage.' Carney, meanwhile, was a bête noire of the Brexiteers, with his risk aversion throwing spanners in the works of trade deals, deregulation and best laid plans. As a central banker, he acted as if saying anything interesting on the record might have killed him. Afterwards, he said what he really thought. 'Some Right-wing populists see current anxieties as an opportunity to stoke anger because anger is what's necessary for their project. After all, people don't demolish things when they are positive or optimistic,' Carney said last year. 'I know this from my time in the UK, where, for years, the rallying cry of Brexiteers has broken Britain, and their solution to 'Take back control' was actually code for tear down your future.' Common ground rating: 2/10 As governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney would begin each day by repeating to himself a phrase from Marcus Aurelius: 'Arise to do the work of humankind.' There hasn't been time to put the comment request to the White House press team, but it feels safe to say that Donald Trump does not do this. He probably thinks Marcus Aurelius is the guy Russell Crowe played in Gladiator. It's too early to say how Trump's routine has changed since he returned to the White House, but in his first term it read like this: awake at 5.30am after four or five hours of sleep, rarely any breakfast, then a good five hours of social media and Fox News (or 'executive time', as it was put) before starting the work of the day at 11am. He'd have a business lunch, then some more 'executive time' and often make space for a round of golf. When his day quietens at 6.30pm, he has dinner. Favourites include well-done steaks, meatloaf and Diet Coke. So to Carney, after he's risen to do the work of humankind. The first thing is a long run. Then to work. On his first day at the Bank of England in 2013, he arrived at Threadneedle Street by Tube, shortly before 7am, beating most of the camera crews and photographers who hoped to catch him arriving. He thought little of working on Sundays, meditated when he was busy ('trust me, it creates time') and earned a reputation as 'no-nonsense, demanding and strategic.' Carney's favourite food is pizza; unlike Trump, he drinks alcohol, once sharing beers with the press gallery and occasionally a martini; he loves Bake Off; and he cooks for his four children, once offering a masterclass for grilling Bistecca Fiorentina, a Tuscan steak dish, to chef Ruth Rogers on the River Café podcast. Trump has yet to appear on the show, so we do not know how his Bistecca Fiorentina recipe compares. Common ground rating: 3/10 Trump likes golf, we know that much. He played 261 rounds of golf in his first term, but there seem to be fewer this time around, so perhaps Elon Musk doesn't allow it. As for his other pursuits… does posting online count? Does anybody think he reads for pleasure? He never seems to go hunting with his sons, or shopping with his daughters. He dances, particularly if the Village People are in the building, but it's difficult to imagine him doing that in private. Wrestling might count. He's a long-time fan of WWE, has notorious friends all over the MMA-sphere, and has taken part in Wrestlemania multiple times, including shaving the head of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon in the ring during 'Battle of the Billionaires' in 2011. Carney has yet to shave a billionaire's head live on television, which is something he ought to correct. Instead, the former ice hockey player runs marathons, and quickly: 3 hours and 31 minutes for the London Marathon a decade ago, which is seven minutes faster than Harry Styles did the Tokyo Marathon earlier this month. Trump's marathon time is unknown. Away from running, banking, meditation, cooking and being handsome, Carney's other great love is for a music festival. A noted fan of indie music and British punk, during his tenure in London, he was often spotted at posh Cotswolds festival Wilderness, sometimes with glitter on his face. Common ground rating: 1/10 Carney met his wife, Diana, while studying at Oxford. She's an economist and author who was born into a wealthy pig farming family. Her sister Tania married hereditary peer Robin Cayzer, 3rd Baron Rotherwick, in 2000 (they have since split). She has worked all over the world, often on climate change policies, and has served on the boards of various institutions. Rarely in the spotlight, she was burned early on after tweeting a link to a story about then French president François Hollande scaling back a proposal that would have seen higher taxes on the ultra-rich. That plan had caused France's ultra-rich to flee for London, decreasing the supply of high-end homes. According to multiple media reports, she wrote: 'Maybe I'll be able to find a place to live in London after all.' At the time, the Carneys had a near-£5,000 a week housing allowance. Melania Trump, who famously doesn't care about what people think, would possibly enjoy that incident. And so might Trump, who'd agree that £5,000 a week is not enough. Otherwise the two women are fairly distinct. Melania, the daughter of a travelling car salesman from Slovenia, was an international model, who once posed nude for Playboy. Diana is more likely to appear as a centrefold in The Economist, offering a thoughtful analysis on carbon offsetting. Trump, it should be said, likes a wife: he complimented Victoria Starmer, calling her 'beautiful' and insisting he is 'very impressed'. And the two couples could always talk children, too. Trump has five, that we know of, while Carney has four daughters: Cleo, Tess, Amelia and Sasha. They joined him on stage recently. 'Without your support, I wouldn't be standing here,' he said to his family during his acceptance speech. 'Without your examples, I wouldn't have a purpose. Without your love, I wouldn't have the strength that I need for what lies ahead.' Trump doesn't quite talk about his family like that, but they know what he means. Common ground rating: 6/10 'The George Clooney of central banking' is how Carney was always sold. To his credit, he retorted that the bar was not a particularly high one. When he arrived in London, he was thought to be a 'rock star' of economics, which tells you everything you need to know about that industry, given he just wore nicely cut dark suits and had short, grey-flecked hair. But compared to previous governors, here was a suave, cosmopolitan, slick figure unafraid of appearing in the Royal Box at Wimbledon and talking about quantitative easing in a manner that could almost be seductive. Like Clooney, he stuck to suits, unless chillaxing at festivals, where he wore shorts and polo shirts, or on one occasion – Glittergate, let's call it – a bizarre shirt with an inexplicable under-shirt seemingly composed from multiple other shirts. Dark suits or polo shirts, rarely anything else? Well, now we're talking. Like a character from The Simpsons, Trump has just one instantly identifiable outfit – navy suit, comically long red tie – and one alternative outfit: white golfing polo shirt, red hat. Folks, I think we've found something they might be able to talk about. Common ground rating: 7/10 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Can opposites attract? Mark Carney represents everything Trump hates
On the day after Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada's 24th – and, he will be hoping, not final – prime minister at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, the official residence of the governor general of Canada, the continent of North America now holds its breath. Carney has little time to luxuriate in the satisfaction of his first ever job in politics being as leader of the second largest country in the world. Nor can he embark on a victory tour. He won't even have time to celebrate his 60th birthday on Sunday. Instead, he has a noise complaint from the brash resident downstairs to deal with – and given the state of relations, as well as an impending general election, he'd better get to it as soon as possible. Because the ballroom at Rideau Hall may be vast, but it could barely contain the elephant in it on Friday: Donald J Trump, conquistador-in-chief, troll of the century, neighbour from hell. Trump's occasional talk of annexing Canada, making it the USA's 51st state, continues every few days, when he remembers. Tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries persist, as does an almost unprecedented level of tough talk, by Canadian standards anyway, in the face of naked aggression from the Maga camp. And so Carney has to do something about it. 'To win the next election, the new prime minister must quickly prove he is Canada's best hope of managing relations with the White House,' so reckoned Politico this weekend. It sounds simple, when you put it like that. It's a little more difficult when you take into account that Carney represents absolutely everything Trump detests in a politician. Carney has said his first foreign visits will be to Europe, rather than 550 miles south to Washington DC. But sooner rather than later, he'll have to address the elephant in the room in person, and put his fabled technocratic charm to the test. Will they (get on), then, or won't they? Let's compare and contrast. Interpersonal style, and general vibe We're off to a bad start here, if the mission is to prospect for common ground. Carney is considered dull even by people who mean to pay him a compliment. This week Daniel Béland, the director of the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University, described him as 'a boring guy who, in general, doesn't have a lot of charisma.' But that's no bad thing, he added, given it lends Carney 'the image of a reassuring guy who knows what he is talking about.' Whatever you make of Trump's politics, 'boring', 'uncharismatic', 'reassuring' and 'knows what he's talking about' are not words or phrases that ever appear in the same sentence as his name. Ultimately, Trump is a bombastic former real estate mogul turned minor TV star who muscled his way into politics through sheer force of personality. His personal life is a soap opera, his attitude to the truth nonchalant, and his moral compass forever broken. He abhors 'the establishment', has no interest in etiquette and the natural order of things, and nothing, but nothing, is ever his fault. America first, but Trump firster – which is a word you can imagine him using, actually. Carney, on the other hand, is a Harvard graduate who made a fortune as an investment banker before becoming deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He became governor of the central bank in 2008, aged 42, steering the country through the financial crisis. George Osborne called him 'the outstanding central banker of his generation', and lusted after him so much that he made him the first foreign governor of the Bank of England. Carney is a Davos man, an ardent globalist and a committed environmentalist. 'Communicate clearly, frequently and honestly,' he advised in his 2021 book Value(s): Building a Better World For All. 'You can't spin your way out of a crisis. The truth will come out.' Oh dear. Common ground rating: 0/10 Politics, or what we can make out Things don't get a lot better here. 'We respect President Trump – President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,' Carney said on Friday, after being sworn in. He has worked with Trump at international meetings, he pointed out: 'In many respects, part of my experience overlaps with that of the president – we're both looking out for our countries. But he knows, and I know from long experience, that we can find mutual solutions that win for both.' Trouble is, they barely see eye to eye on anything in politics. Carney's a staunch defender of the kind of multilateral order Trump spends much of his time seeking to destroy. His focus on climate policies is entirely out of step with Trump's 'drill, baby drill' preference. And over the last decade, their attitudes to deal-making have been laid bare. Take Brexit as an example: 'I would say [the UK is] better off without [the EU], personally, but I'm not making that as a recommendation, just my feeling,' Trump famously said. During the protracted negotiation period, Trump later accused Theresa May of 'wrecking Brexit' and insisted 'I think that the UK allowed the European Union to have all the cards. And it is very hard to play well when one side has all the advantage.' Carney, meanwhile, was a bête noire of the Brexiteers, with his risk aversion throwing spanners in the works of trade deals, deregulation and best laid plans. As a central banker, he acted as if saying anything interesting on the record might have killed him. Afterwards, he said what he really thought. 'Some Right-wing populists see current anxieties as an opportunity to stoke anger because anger is what's necessary for their project. After all, people don't demolish things when they are positive or optimistic,' Carney said last year. 'I know this from my time in the UK, where, for years, the rallying cry of Brexiteers has broken Britain, and their solution to 'Take back control' was actually code for tear down your future.' Common ground rating: 2/10 Daily routine As governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney would begin each day by repeating to himself a phrase from Marcus Aurelius: 'Arise to do the work of humankind.' There hasn't been time to put the comment request to the White House press team, but it feels safe to say that Donald Trump does not do this. He probably thinks Marcus Aurelius is the guy Russell Crowe played in Gladiator. It's too early to say how Trump's routine has changed since he returned to the White House, but in his first term it read like this: awake at 5.30am after four or five hours of sleep, rarely any breakfast, then a good five hours of social media and Fox News (or 'executive time', as it was put) before starting the work of the day at 11am. He'd have a business lunch, then some more 'executive time' and often make space for a round of golf. When his day quietens at 6.30pm, he has dinner. Favourites include well-done steaks, meatloaf and Diet Coke. So to Carney, after he's risen to do the work of humankind. The first thing is a long run. Then to work. On his first day at the Bank of England in 2013, he arrived at Threadneedle Street by Tube, shortly before 7am, beating most of the camera crews and photographers who hoped to catch him arriving. He thought little of working on Sundays, meditated when he was busy ('trust me, it creates time') and earned a reputation as 'no-nonsense, demanding and strategic.' Carney's favourite food is pizza; unlike Trump, he drinks alcohol, once sharing beers with the press gallery and occasionally a martini; he loves Bake Off; and he cooks for his four children, once offering a masterclass for grilling Bistecca Fiorentina, a Tuscan steak dish, to chef Ruth Rogers on the River Café podcast. Trump has yet to appear on the show, so we do not know how his Bistecca Fiorentina recipe compares. Common ground rating: 3/10 Leisure pursuits Trump likes golf, we know that much. He played 261 rounds of golf in his first term, but there seem to be fewer this time around, so perhaps Elon Musk doesn't allow it. As for his other pursuits… does posting online count? Does anybody think he reads for pleasure? He never seems to go hunting with his sons, or shopping with his daughters. He dances, particularly if the Village People are in the building, but it's difficult to imagine him doing that in private. Wrestling might count. He's a long-time fan of WWE, has notorious friends all over the MMA-sphere, and has taken part in Wrestlemania multiple times, including shaving the head of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon in the ring during 'Battle of the Billionaires' in 2011. Carney has yet to shave a billionaire's head live on television, which is something he ought to correct. Instead, the former ice hockey player runs marathons, and quickly: 3 hours and 31 minutes for the London Marathon a decade ago, which is seven minutes faster than Harry Styles did the Tokyo Marathon earlier this month. Trump's marathon time is unknown. Away from running, banking, meditation, cooking and being handsome, Carney's other great love is for a music festival. A noted fan of indie music and British punk, during his tenure in London, he was often spotted at posh Cotswolds festival Wilderness, sometimes with glitter on his face. Common ground rating: 1/10 Other halves Carney met his wife, Diana, while studying at Oxford. She's an economist and author who was born into a wealthy pig farming family. Her sister Tania married hereditary peer Robin Cayzer, 3rd Baron Rotherwick, in 2000 (they have since split). She has worked all over the world, often on climate change policies, and has served on the boards of various institutions. Rarely in the spotlight, she was burned early on after tweeting a link to a story about then French president François Hollande scaling back a proposal that would have seen higher taxes on the ultra-rich. That plan had caused France's ultra-rich to flee for London, decreasing the supply of high-end homes. According to multiple media reports, she wrote: 'Maybe I'll be able to find a place to live in London after all.' At the time, the Carneys had a near-£5,000 a week housing allowance. Melania Trump, who famously doesn't care about what people think, would possibly enjoy that incident. And so might Trump, who'd agree that £5,000 a week is not enough. Otherwise the two women are fairly distinct. Melania, the daughter of a travelling car salesman from Slovenia, was an international model, who once posed nude for Playboy. Diana is more likely to appear as a centrefold in The Economist, offering a thoughtful analysis on carbon offsetting. Trump, it should be said, likes a wife: he complimented Victoria Starmer, calling her 'beautiful' and insisting he is 'very impressed'. And the two couples could always talk children, too. Trump has five, that we know of, while Carney has four daughters: Cleo, Tess, Amelia and Sasha. They joined him on stage recently. 'Without your support, I wouldn't be standing here,' he said to his family during his acceptance speech. 'Without your examples, I wouldn't have a purpose. Without your love, I wouldn't have the strength that I need for what lies ahead.' Trump doesn't quite talk about his family like that, but they know what he means. Common ground rating: 6/10 Clashing fashions 'The George Clooney of central banking' is how Carney was always sold. To his credit, he retorted that the bar was not a particularly high one. When he arrived in London, he was thought to be a 'rock star' of economics, which tells you everything you need to know about that industry, given he just wore nicely cut dark suits and had short, grey-flecked hair. But compared to previous governors, here was a suave, cosmopolitan, slick figure unafraid of appearing in the Royal Box at Wimbledon and talking about quantitative easing in a manner that could almost be seductive. Like Clooney, he stuck to suits, unless chillaxing at festivals, where he wore shorts and polo shirts, or on one occasion – Glittergate, let's call it – a bizarre shirt with an inexplicable under-shirt seemingly composed from multiple other shirts. Dark suits or polo shirts, rarely anything else? Well, now we're talking. Like a character from The Simpsons, Trump has just one instantly identifiable outfit – navy suit, comically long red tie – and one alternative outfit: white golfing polo shirt, red hat. Folks, I think we've found something they might be able to talk about.
The Guardian
10-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Mark Carney, the ‘boring guy' whose economic acumen could help Canada tackle Trump
Mark Carney, soon to become Canada's new prime minister, is a two-time central banker and crisis fighter about to face his biggest challenge of all: steering Canada through Donald Trump's tariffs. The 59-year-old will be the first person to become Canadian prime minister without being a legislator or any cabinet experience. Carney's credentials as a political outsider would in normal times have killed his candidacy in Canada but the distance from unpopular incumbent Justin Trudeau and a high-profile banking career played to his advantage, and Carney argues he is the only person prepared to handle Trump. 'I know how to manage crises ... in a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, you need negotiating skills,' Carney said during a leadership debate late last month. He argues Canada must fight Trump's tariffs with dollar for dollar retaliation and diversify trading relations in the medium term. Last month he said: 'President Trump probably thinks Canada will cave in. But we are going to stand up to a bully, we're not going to back down. We're united and we will retaliate.' Carney has called the threats posed by Trump 'the most serious crisis of our lifetime' and said on Sunday that the US wants 'our resources, our water, our land, our country'. Daniel Beland, director of the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University, described Carney as a 'technocrat'. 'He's a boring guy who in general doesn't have a lot of charisma,' Beland said but he noted that his rigorous competence with no flash may be appealing, given Canada is rattled by Trump's trade chaos and attacks on its sovereignty. Carney presents 'the image of a reassuring guy who knows what he is talking about,' Beland said. Carney was born in Fort Smith, a small town in the remote Northwest Territories, where his parents were teachers, but he was raised in Edmonton, Alberta's capital. He attended Harvard where he played college level ice hockey, starring as a goalkeeper, and studied at Oxford. He made a fortune as an investment banker during 13 years at Goldman Sachs, working in New York, London, Tokyo and Toronto before being named deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He left in November 2004 for a top finance ministry job and returned to become governor of the central bank in 2008 at the age of just 42. Carney won praise for his handling of that year's financial crisis, when he created new emergency loan facilities and gave unusually explicit guidance on keeping rates at record low levels for a specific period of time. Even back then, rumours swirled that he would seek a career in politics with the Liberals, prompting him to respond with a prickliness that is still sometimes evident. The Bank of England was impressed enough though to poach him in 2013, making him the first non-British governor in the central bank's three-century history, and the first person to ever head two G7 central banks. Britain's chancellor at the time, George Osborne, called Carney the 'outstanding central bank governor of his generation'. Carney, though, had a challenging time, forced to face zero inflation and the political chaos of Brexit. He struggled to deploy his trademark policy of signalling the likely path of interest rates. The bank said its guidance came with caveats but media often interpreted it as more of a guarantee, with Labour legislator Pat McFadden dubbing the bank under Carney as an 'unreliable boyfriend'. But he infuriated Brexit supporters by talking about the economic damage that he said was likely to be caused. Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg called him the 'high priest of project fear' but Carney said it was his duty to talk about such risks. When sterling tumbled in the hours after the Brexit referendum result in 2016, Carney delivered a televised address to reassure markets that the bank would turn on the liquidity taps if needed. 'Mark has a rare ability to combine a central banker's steady hand, with a political reformer's eye to the future,' said Ana Botin, Santander's executive chairman, in a written comment to Reuters. She said Carney 'steadied the ship' in the UK after Brexit. He left the Bank of England in 2020, and then served as a United Nations envoy on finance and climate change, continuing to write and work on an area he emphasised as governor: the need for financial markets to catch up with the risks of the climate crisis. After launching the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero in 2021 to act as an umbrella group for financial sector efforts to get to net-zero emissions, Carney oversaw a surge in membership as boards rushed to signal a willingness to act. He launched his bid for the Liberal leadership on 16 January. Although his path to office appeared unusual, Carney told supporters in Edmonton in January: 'Our times are anything but ordinary.' However, Carney may not be prime minister for long, with a general election due to be held by 20 October that the opposition Conservatives are slight favourites to win, according to polls. The Conservatives are led by Pierre Poilievre, a career politician with little international exposure. Lori Turnbull of Dalhousie University cautioned that Carney may struggle to connect with the public. 'He's not a particularly great communicator when it comes to the public,' she said. 'He is unusually well-equipped to deal with economic crises' but 'it's very hard to see how anybody would be successful in politics if you can't bring people on board with you,' she told AFP. 'The Conservatives are trying to cast him as an elite who doesn't understand what regular people go through. And I think if he can't communicate well, then he runs the risk of being typecast in that way,' Turnbull said. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
