During the speech of Mark Carney at the Liberal Party of Canada's March 9th event announcing the results of its so-called race, Carney outright insulted Justin Trudeau within a spitting distance of him, while Trudeau smiled and applauded.
Trudeau sat in the front row with his children (so that they can all see his humiliation?). At the top of his speech, Carney thanked Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, praising him because he "took courageous and historic decisions" and telling him that "you inspired me over the years. And now to have an opportunity to continue your tradition of fiscal responsibility, social justice and international leadership". The implication being that Trudeau did not make the couragous decisions regarding fiscal responsibility. Trudeau appears to not clap but everyone else does.
Then Carney acknowledges Trudeau by stating "my time does not permit me to recognize all of your accomplishments" but then highlighting Trudeau's "strength and compassion", again implying that Trudeau is weak while Chretien was strong in his fiscal responsibility.
He then proceeds to praise Trudeau more concretely, but in French, while the CPAC telecast did not carry a French translation and the CBC's translator was inaudible.
In French, Carney praised Trudeau for lifting children out of poverty, while in English he is simply praised for "compassion" without elaboration. Does compassion mean lying on the floor like a mat so Mark Carney can walk on over it, because that's what Trudeau has done?
Carney praises Liberal MPs in somewhat of a condescending fashion, calling them the "voices of the community and the conscience of the party", which means they are irrelevant outside of gaining publicity for their betrayal of Trudeau and dragging the Liberal Party down in the polls as a result of those betrayals in December.
That their quest to raise their own sense of power by eliminating Trudeau will not translate into actual importance in the Carney's new administration, and they will continue to be relegated as beings of "conscience" in distant and irrelevant communities, no longer tools for Carney to have used when putting the knife to Trudeau.
Carney then proudly states that he is reversing Justin Trudeau's core policies, while Trudeau smiles and nods like a dolphin: "I am a pragmatist above all. When I see something is not working, I will change it. My government will immediately eliminate the divisive consumer carbon tax on families, farmers and small- and medium-sized businesses. And we will stop the height in the capital gains tax.”
Then "The Incarnate" Mark Carney appears to look down at Trudeau, and smiles an evil laugh of pure joy at having witnessed Trudeau's humiliation. As Carney twirls the knife of betrayal that is lunged into Trudeau, Carney stares into his eyes, and Trudeau looked back, unable to fight back.
The person who initiated the backstabbing, Chrystia Freeland, won only a tiny percentage of the vote. At the height of her arrogance and power, as Canada's finance minister, she refused to accept a "demotion" to be a tariff negotiator between Canada and the U.S., but Trump himself lamented that Freeland was a hardliner while probably considering Trudeau a lightweight.
The appointment of Freeland at the time Trudeau wanted that appointment perhaps would have served as a deterrent for Trump's tariff plans, because it was Freeland who resisted the tariffs in the former Trump administration and helped negotiate the now-violated USMCA agreement. Surprisingly, Freeland finally accepted a demotion from Mark Carney, although not in the realm of U.S.-Canada trade. So her betrayal landed her in a worse position, at the end of the day, than had she accepted her demotion.
It was Mark Carney who was slated to replace Freeland as finance minister, probably an attempt for Trudeau to appease the growing malcontents backing Carney, and had he been appointed finance minister, maybe his pawns the Liberal MPs, backroom operators and big-time donors would have acquiesced to the Trudeau's prime ministership, at least until the federal election, where perhaps Trudeau would have lost and a real Leadership race would have ensued, where Freeland could have been able to show her experience and intellect, while Carney would have made more mistakes like the ones he made at the one French language debate.
Instead she impatiently stabbed Trudeau in the back without all her ducks in a row in terms of donors and supporters. Her tremendous loss, her earning only eight per cent of the vote, compared to Carney's 85.9 per cent will surely not give her momentum should the Liberals lose the next election and Carney resigns.
Even Paul Martin, who would eventually become prime minister in 2003, was a decent second place at the 1990 Liberal Leadership Race with 25.19 per cent of the vote. Also, Jean Chretien had 31 per cent on the first ballot and 40.5 per cent on the second ballot at the 1984 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, another decent second place finish.
Michael Ignatieff, who would later become the acclaimed leader of the Liberal Party, also was a close second with 45.3 per cent at the 2006 Liberal race.
While those who had 12 per cent and six per cent at the 2013 leadership race that elected Trudeau were never heard from again in terms of being contenders for the leadership, Freeland has really caught herself in a bubble and stained any future prospects she may have had in the party.
Robert Nelly
Cambrian Heights