And Mark Carney is already Leaving!
Mark Carney will grace Question Period with his presence at 2:15 today, but dont get attached.
Because "attending Question Period" with Carney doesn't necessarily mean staying for Question Period. His usual approach is the leaders round: take maybe 4 or 5 questions himself, sit down staring intently at notes in front of him, let his ministers take over and, most often, leave before the whole thing is finished.
And "answer" is doing some fairly heroic work there! Ask Carney a direct question and you are liable to get the familiar collection of keywords, slogans, statistics and talking points assembled into something that occupied the allotted time without necessarily answering what was asked.
You know what I mean, we've all witnessed it in action. Case in point;
"Strongest fiscal position in the G7."
"Building Canada strong."
"Most connected economy in the world."
"More resilient. More independent."
We have heard them. Repeatedly.
And thats where his attendance stops being a parliamentary trivia question and starts having real world consequences.
You cant hold a Prime Minister accountable in Parliament if he treats Parliament like an optional appointment. If he's not there, he doesn't have to defend the contradictions, explain the decisions, answer the follow-ups or face the people Canadians elected specifically to challenge his government.
And if he does show up, he only takes a handful of questions, answers them with slogans and word salads, hands the rest to his ministers and heads for the door, and that's not much better. Accountability requires access. You cant question an empty chair.
At 4:00, he's back on the plane and off to New York for UN meetings.
New York... well of course!
Brookfield Asset Management moved its head office from Toronto to New York in late 2024, while Carney was still its chair, a mere 2 months before he entered the Liberal leadership race. And this wasnt some corporate decision that happened after he had wandered out the door. The board approved the restructuring unanimously while Carney was chair, and his own signature appears on the December shareholder circular documenting the New York head office and recommending the boards proposal. He didnt resign from Brookfield until January 16, the same day he launched his Liberal leadership campaign.
And when Carneys investments were finally disclosed before being placed in a blind trust, more than 560 individual companies appeared in his managed investment account, with roughly 91% of those companies reportedly headquartered in the United States. That’s a count of holdings, not 91% of the dollar value of his wealth, because those values werent disclosed.
So New York probably doesnt exactly feel like strange territory. At this point, Carney flying to New York feels less like international travel and more like the call of home. Think of it like Mecca for bankers if you will.
So, if you are wondering what the fall sitting might look like, there's your preview.
Carney was absent from 74% of Question Periods in the last session.
So, using the sophisticated forecasting technique known as "watching what the man actually does," Canadians should probably expect more of the same:
✈️ Europe. Lots of Europe!
✈️ Summits. So many summits.
✈️ International forums, naturally.
✈️ Investment meetings of course.
✈️ Speeches about Canadian sovereignty delivered somewhere other than Canada to non-Canadians.
🏛️ Parliament, only when and if Carney's scheduling permits. And we thought Trudeau was a part time PM. Carney comes along, says hold my Perrier and shows us all what part time really looks like.
Carney has spent an extraordinary amount of time travelling, meeting, announcing plans to meet again, signing MOUs and talking about future agreements. At some point Canadians are entitled to ask a remarkably basic question:
WHAT THE HELL IS ACTUALLY COMING OUT OF ALL OF IT THAT IS TANGIBLE FOR CANADIANS?
Not another meeting!
Not another MOU!
Not another announcement about an agreement they hope to negotiate later! Real, actual, measurable results for the Canadians paying for all of this
Meanwhile, Carney says this will be a "crucial" session and that his government will introduce some of the most "consequential legislation" in decades.
CONSEQUENTIAL FOR WHOM?
Because based on the last session, Canadians might reasonably wonder exactly what we are supposed to be looking forward to.
- Do we get to look forward to more debate being cut short using ill-gotten majority pressure?
- Will we see even more parliamentary procedure being used to ram and force feed legislation through faster without parliamentary engagement or oversight?
- Wanna bet more Liberal-majority committees controlling what gets heard, what gets called and what gets buried will become a regular feature, used to keep Canadians deaf, dumb and blind to what's happening... Maple Mushrooms growing in the dark feasting on actual shit perhaps?
- Will more committee business disappear in camera, safely away from those pesky prying Canadians who apparently think they are entitled to watch their own government operate since they fund it?
- Will more opposition concerns be mocked, dismissed or treated as irritating background noise while the Liberals remind everyone that they have the votes so, too bad so sad?
Is that what "consequential" means?
Because when a Prime Minister tells the country he’s preparing some of the most consequential legislation in decades, after we have already watched how his government handles scrutiny and dissent, perhaps Canadians should be asking one extremely inconvenient question:
WHAT ELSE ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO "FOR US" THAT WE DIDN’T ELECT YOU TO DO, NEVER VOTED ON, AND NEVER GAVE YOU A MANDATE TO DO?
Because lately, "for Canadians" seems to be the magic phrase slapped on decisions Canadians were never actually asked about. And funny enough, Brookfield keeps turning up somewhere in the vicinity of an extraordinary number of decisions supposedly being made "for Canadians."
Ironic how that keeps happening, eh?
Oh, and somewhere in this "consequential" session we are finally getting a budget... in the fall. Federal budgets were traditionally, and overwhelmingly, a spring event. Sure, there were occasional exceptions. But Carney didn't make an exception, he changed the schedule.
His government moved the federal budget cycle to the fall, with the spring now reserved for an economic and fiscal update. Because apparently the federal budget needed to be on the same fiscal calendar as Brookfield. So Budget 2026 is coming. That should be fun... not!
And somewhere amid all this globe-trotting, another batch of federal byelections is coming. There are vacant seats waiting to be filled, including Yorkton–Melville here in Saskatchewan, and another round is expected soon. Carney is rumoured to call them this week.
So welcome back, Canada! Parliament resumes today, Carney will drop by and then he's leaving the country... again. And maybe thats the most useful preview of this "consequential" session we are going to get.
The government will be in Parliament making decisions Canadians will have to live with. But the Prime Minister?
IN PARLIAMENT, ONLY WHEN SCHEDULING PERMITS.
Melanie in Saskatchewan