In politics, you’re not supposed to talk about your opponents, repeat their messages or even say their names. You’re certainly not supposed to treat them fairly (which might even require a compliment or two). But I’ve never been a fan of these forced conventions - people are too smart, authenticity is too important, and in any case this is a unique political moment in which conventions are not exactly saving us.
So let’s talk about Mark Carney. I have thoughts…
But first I need to ask you for your support. We could have an election call in the next week.[1] This is a critical time for our campaign: the last few days we can spend money before the election spending cap kicks in. I’m now knocking doors from 10am to 8pm daily, and we’re reaching tens of thousands in the riding with our online ads. Every dollar can make a big impact right now. Can you chip in?
Ok, so here is my candid take on Mr. Carney. His appearance on the political stage feels a little like Kamala Harris’s in the US last year. For more than a year, progressives have felt mounting panic - like we were sleepwalking into the election of a far right government, our PM too self-confident to pass the torch. And then at the 11th hour, he comes to his senses, a new leader appears, and gets a bump in the polls. And in a burst of relief, everyone suddenly believes that this new leader will save us.
Hell - I’m running hard against a 32 year Liberal incumbent who has been coasting in this riding for years, and even I have felt the fluttering of Carney-hope beating in my chest! It’s real, I get it.
But I think we have to be very wary of our tendency to project our desperate political hopes onto a new figure without digging a little deeper into who they really are.
I watched this when I was covering the US election of 2008 - many were heralding Obama as the progressive Second Coming, even as he praised Ronald Reagan on the campaign trail and promised to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Mark Carney is a banker. He started his career at Goldman Sachs.[2] He favours convoluted market solutions to solve climate change. His grand Financial Alliance for Net Zero turned out to be an epic fail - all the paper-thin climate pledges from big banks and hedge funds crumpled at the first sign of climate denial returning to power in the US.[3]
He’s talking about cutting the public service and fiscal austerity. He appointed Marco Mendocino - one of the most aggressively pro-Israel Liberal MPs - his first chief of staff.[4]
He was until recently chair of Brookfield Asset Management, a gigantic financial firm that started as a spinoff of the Bronfman empire, was a major player in inflating the housing bubble, and notoriously bailed Jared Kushner out of a real estate fiasco during the first Trump administration.[5]
Of course we progressives are frantic to avoid Pierre Poilievre dragging us down the US rabbit hole into a netherworld of wrecking ball politics, government-by-revenge, and defiant corruption. But let’s also remember that the last decade of Liberal government in Canada brought us the cost-of-living emergency and the epic corporate power and profits that have laid the ground for the far right wave threatening to engulf Canada.
It’s understandable - we all want a benevolent father figure to save us from the nightmare our US friends and family are living through. And to be fair, Carney did play a role in navigating the global financial crisis of 2008.[6] He has expressed a sincere desire to address climate change and protect Canadian jobs. It’s not unusual for a new leader to float lots of different positions in trying to build a big political tent for a sudden election.
But that’s precisely why we need people in Parliament pushing whoever is elected to actually protect our economic sovereignty and restore our battered public services. That's why I'm running in Vancouver Centre—to champion policies like national rent control, non-market housing, price caps and windfall profit taxes and powerlines, not pipelines.
Amid all the chaos of this political moment, I believe passionately that we can win here. What the polls can never reflect is the strength of an individual campaign - the power and momentum we’re building day after day as we knock on thousands of doors, and create the connective tissue of community. We can feel the tide rising here. After 32 years of Liberal representation - and an MP who is less and less present in people’s lives - voters are ready for a change in Vancouver Centre. They’re telling us they want a progressive champion who is up for the fight.
Donate Now
PRO TIP: A $400 donation costs you just $100 after your tax credit.
In this pivotal moment, your support really can drive the kind of change we need. No matter who is Prime Minister, Vancouver Centre gets to choose who represents us. Who fights for us. And people here know that’s what this election is really about.
With the world seemingly spinning out of control, this is something concrete that we can do. Together.
Your support can make it happen for us here in Vancouver Centre!
In passionate solidarity,
Avi Lewis
Vancouver Centre
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Carney
3. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-banks-leave-net-zero-banking-alliance-1.7435273
4. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mendicino-carney-chief-of-staff-1.7481928
5. https://www.ft.com/content/595a77d0-3867-11ea-a6d3-9a26f8c3cba4
The fire at Nicholson Towers is a devastating reminder of how governments have failed our elders. Forty-two residents—many of them seniors with mobility challenges—have been displaced from their homes. And for what reason? A lack of basic fire protection in a building that was supposed to be safe. A social housing tower that should have been maintained with care, left instead to fall into disrepair.
With just days until the next threatened tariff attack by Trump, we should be having a vigorous debate about specific big moves the federal government can make.
Welcome to the second installment of our “Ideas Lying around” series, in which we explore big, bold policies that would meet this historic moment. Canada is under economic attack by our closest neighbour: we need to do big things.[1]