Carney Wins… Canada Loses

Carney Wins… Canada Loses

 

OTTAWA—Mark Carney‘s minority government transformed into a slim but workable majority in Parliament courtesy of three Monday byelection victories, meaning the prime minister can now more easily advance his high-spending economic and defence agenda over any opposition objections.

-       Carney wins majority after Liberal byelection sweep, Toronto Star

 

By Gregg Wall (4-18-2026)

For Canadian progressives PM Carney’s first year in office, at least for those who knew or were keenly aware of Carney’s notorious background, was both revealing and as expected.  From day one, Carney hasn’t failed to take the side of bankers, big business, concentrated wealth and power, oil & gas, and oligarchy in his decision making and policy decisions.  Even going so far as to bend over backwards for Alberta’s Premier Smith and American oil & gas interests in possession of the Alberta tar sands. The Liberal government’s Bill C-5 set the tone with deregulation, the promised eradication of interprovincial red tape, and the crushing and subjugation of indigenous & charter rights.  Here, synthesized in one bill was the banker and neoliberal that I feared would come to power… masquerading as a champion of Canada and its people, in reality a champion of capital and greed. 

To further my point, four Conservative Party MPs have crossed the floor and joined Carney’s minority government.  What could have caused these MPs to defect?  Was it the realization that Carney, at least in regards business and the economy, was just as conservative, perhaps a more competent conservative than Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre?  And what of their business backers, donors, and sponsors, surely, they must have had some input in conservative defections to the Liberal government?  Less so constituents of their respective ridings or legislative districts, who appear to have no input or say.  Add in this week’s wins in byelections… three wins… and Carney now has a majority government with precious little to hold Carney and his far-right agenda back.  Carney was quick to insinuate no one was to question is imperious reign.  Carney, with a Goldman Sachs banker and Central banker background, as well as Chairman of the board for Brookfield PE, is used to giving orders and never having those orders questioned.  The give and take of the political process, the bobbing and weaving required during question period (QP)… is clearly not for Canada’s monarch.  Hence, Carney conveniently found himself traveling a great deal during his first year.  Mr. Carney would do well to remember that he doesn’t have a mandate, and he holds the majority government by the slenderest of margins.  Not that the Libs won’t work out yet more backroom deals to draw conservative party members over.  The damn has broken and politicians and sellouts will do what politicians and sellouts do, look out for themselves.  

Sure, in binary matchups and false dichotomy polling, Carney polls well with the Canadian public but I suspect that has more to do with fear and who Carney is not.  Carney is not Pierre Poilievre and Carney is not Donald Trump, who essentially campaigned & elected Carney (by placing the fear of God and the fear of annexation into the good people of Canada).  Why it’s almost as if Pierre and Donnie were working for the Liberal Party and Mark Carney.  With enemies, such as these two, who needs friends?  Are we entirely sure Pierre isn’t on Carney’s payroll, some shady backroom deal… the damage this man has done to the Conservative party is unbelievable, blowing a massive lead in the last election to see a sizable number of defections to the Liberal government.  This, as the MAGA movement dies in the United States.

So, let’s get to it. Where precisely has Carney failed:

Affordability.  Carney simply refuses to take on supply-side greedflation, billionaires, monopolies, and utilities… instead, Carney leans on tax cuts and failed neoliberalism.  Which does nothing to contain supply-side greed, fat profit margins on essential goods & services, robber baron avarice, and soaring prices.  In fact, Carney’s tax cuts only reward the predatory class.  In summary, look no further as to why Canadian poverty is on the uptick, along with food bank foot traffic, than the illustrious King Carney.  Youth unemployment is high and rents remain obscene.  

Trade Agreement.  Crazy me, I seem to recall Carney was presented as the master negotiator, one who would adroitly dispense with Mr. Trump’s shenanigans, produce strong trade relations, and dispatch Trumpian tariffs.  Never happened.  Did it? Canadians are still waiting.  In fact, Carney conceded counter tariffs and taxes on American tech firms, w/ little to show in return.

Healthcare.  Dear Goddess, what a disappointment the Libs have been, especially in dealing with Team Corruption, Premiers Ford and Smith.  Both premiers gladly take federal tax money for public healthcare and transfer taxpayer money into highly expensive, for-profit healthcare services.  In Alberta, private sector healthcare contracts, per the Globe and Mail, were at double the cost of the public option.  It’s so bad, that the Alberta government is presently under investigation.  The Liberal government hasn’t lifted a finger to end the steady erosion and underfunding of public healthcare… no oversight, no controls, no penalties, NO CLAWBACKS.  A complete disaster for Canadian patients and taxpayers, who deserve so much better.  Here, Carney and the Libs are MIA.  Far be it from me to tell the Liberal government how to do their job, but Mr. Carney has some very big problems in Alberta and Ontario.  

Housing.  I seem to recall Carney is funding all of 4,000 houses with additional capacity for 45,000, when 3.2 million are needed.  And here, it’s Carney’s background in private equity, commercial ownership and management of residential properties, and possibly many conflicts of interest that immediately come to mind.  What else could King Carney be thinking?  Why wouldn’t the Liberal government insist that commercial interest leave residential property immediately?  Why wouldn’t Carney use price controls on rents… price controls that are so highly effective on Canadian medicine.  Or windfall taxation?  Or the elimination of AI, algorithmic pricing on rents and groceries.  The opportunities for Carney to apply his business acumen and special knowledge are manifest to all.  Instead, we get 4,000 units.  I don’t doubt that PM Carney has the gifts, knowledge, and ability… I doubt that Carney has the will to use these gifts, knowledge, and ability against wealthy, powerful friends, interests, and donors. 

Business closings are greater than business creation.  I just read it today, Canada is hemorrhaging entrepreneurs and investors… and therefore, jobs.  What could be driving the dearth of businesses.  Well, the Global News piece attributed the death of Canadian businesses to: Covid, tariffs, red tape, tax and payroll pressure, labour challenges… the lack of scale for smaller businesses to handle backroom services and overhead.  Those are all good answers, except it leaves out the obvious.  Namely, the concentrated wealth and wage inequality in Canada is truly hideous, and such concentration stifles the economy… when people are destitute and struggling to cover the basics, they have no money for mom & pop enterprise and smaller businesses.  Concentrated wealth, financialization, and monopolies are a death sentence for entrepreneurs, families, and start-ups.  In this environment, a young and talented entrepreneur would be crazy to go into debt or invest capital into a startup, again due to the stripping of the safety net, the erosion of public services, and egregious wage & wealth inequality.

When evil Premiers introduce for-profit healthcare and higher, much higher out of pocket healthcare fees without returning tax dollars paid annually to cover public healthcare… it’s a ripoff and a scam.   It leaves families, workers, and the unemployed… already beset on all sides by plutocratic sharks & thieves… unable to spend and help the economy grow, unable to survive.  Canada is at the crossroads: it needs to recommit to the CHA, the Canadian people, and both adequately fund public healthcare and hold premiers accountable, who fail to use allocated federal tax monies for public healthcare.  Otherwise, Canadians are due a substantial tax cut. 

Oil & Gas.  My personal favorite.  Carney and Libs have not done anything to rein in the American owners of Alberta O&G and their mouthpiece, Dani Smith.  Nothing.  The Liberals have not dealt with Alberta fraud, the failure of the provincial gov to collect adequate taxes, insurance, performance bonds, and LOCs/collateral to ensure oil well cleanup, tailings processing & cleanup, and air, land, and water contamination are adequately addressed.  Carney has done nothing to protect First Nations that are being systematically poisoned by American owned Alberta oil & gas.  An industry that has an incredible knack for sucking energy sites dry and then fobbing off the site to a bankrupt company… just as the bill for cleanup, reclamation, and taxes comes due.  Especially now, when the Americans are swimming in profits… now, would be an excellent time to present the Americans with the bill for hundreds of billions in damages.  If only Canada had a PM with courage; if only Canada had a PM who was an expert negotiator; if only Canada had a PM who would put the American oil majors in their place, instead of allowing them to ripoff Canada.  If only. 

 

 

 

I really have no unkind words for my fellow Canadians, except for racists & separatists.  The only counsel I would offer is you deserve better, so much better.  Stop playing the binary game, stop placing blind faith in politicians, don’t buy into false dichotomies… as one of my favorite podcasters in the States, Sabby Sabs, is fond of saying, I paraphrase:  Expect more, demand more, and fire their ass if they lie and don’t deliver.  

Canada, trust me, deserves so much better than the American/Trump model being foisted upon Canada by the Conservative provincial governments and the Liberal federal government.  An American model which is the highway to hell.  Trust me, I know.  I am an American and a Canadian.  I’ve lived in hell.  I worked in hell, the United States.  I’ve seen first-hand the face of rabid financialization, neoliberalism, the necro economy up close and personal.  (Read private equity financials and underwrote private equity companies, throughout my career.)  The industry, private equity, the epitome of financialization & terror, is the face of economic death and failure.  Financialization and monopolies take a chainsaw to economies, jobs, opportunity and the tax base… PM Carney should know this and probably does.  But to date, Carney has done nothing about it, because that would likely prove highly upsetting to his high-net-worth friends, business & personal interests, and the private equity industry?

Canadian monopolies and the billionaire class need no champions.  The Canadian people, the Canadian family and labour need, deserve, and must have champions, like Avi Lewis and Wab Kinew.  Canadians need real people, who actually care, who will actually get things done… not Emperor Carney and the ultra-right-wing Libs, who constantly fail everyone, but their rich and powerful friends.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026