Opinion: Mark Carney's washed up Liberals are incapable of change

Poilievre is the only leader who can unleash Canada's full potential

By Michel Maisonneuve and Barbara Krasij, Special to National Post

Published Apr 08, 2025

Last updated 1 day ago

5 minute read

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https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-mark-carneys-washed-up-liberals-are-incapable-of-change

By Michel Maisonneuve and Barbara Krasij

According to the legacy media, the second coming of the Messiah is here, and his name is Mark Carney. Pundits are salivating at his anointment, and pollsters are getting more airtime than ever, giddy with predictions of a Liberal majority. How did we get here?

Last December, as calls for Justin Trudeau’s termination were heard nationwide, the polls showed overwhelming support for a Conservative supermajority. Why, there were even whispers that the Liberals wouldn’t retain their party status in the new legislature. Since then, the tables supposedly turned, and we are now facing a fourth term of the most destructive government Canada has ever known. The Messiah? You’ve got to be joking!

Nothing has changed and nothing will change if Carney is elected. It’s the same old government, run by the very same people, with the same mandate that turned a once proud and successful Canada into a post-national state with a strangled resource sector and zero hope for its young people. Antisemitism is still present just below the surface, sometimes exploding in our streets as our flag is burned amid chants of “death to Canada.”

Canadians have never been so divided. A resurgence of separatism has sprung in Québec, and the same sentiments grow in Alberta: last month, Mainstreet Research found that 25 per cent of Albertans would support joining the United States. To the south is a newly elected president famous for smelling weakness in his opponents, ready to pounce on our debilitated nation with crippling tariffs and perhaps even attempt to achieve manifest destiny by making Canada the 51st state.

Canadians shouldn’t believe Carney is the man to save us.

Carney is a multimillionaire who made his money in central banking, consulting and advising. His PhD has been marred with plagiarism allegations. He has supported sending investments to tax havens abroad. His loyalty is to the dollar, and the companies whose boards he sat on — companies that left Canada for the United States and took loans from China.

His ethics are at least as questionable as his predecessor’s, minus only perhaps Trudeau’s fetish for playing dress-up. If he has nothing to hide, then why doesn’t he disclose all of his assets and business interests to the public, as Canadians expect?

He has never been elected to public office, cannot speak French and calls the offering up of a Conservative candidate to fetch a bounty from the Chinese government “a teachable moment.”

It seems that Trump is the only issue on which Carney waxes poetic. The rest of the time, he is blatantly stealing ideas from the Conservative party platform without batting an eye. Liberals and the legacy media — one and the same, really — are applauding this agent of change as if he’s a saviour.

The same voices are accusing Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — the only man who can deliver real change in this election — of not having properly identified the “ballot question.” What drivel! Poilievre and the Conservatives identified the ballot issue months, if not years, ago: affordability. The Trump tariffs, threats of annexation and general treatment of Canada are important issues, but they are not as important as the pressure Canadians feel from housing, jobs, immigration, health care and wages.

Besides, Trump’s bullying of our country is the result of 10 years of complete mismanagement in Ottawa.

Imagine what Canada would be like right now if it had spent the last several years becoming one of the greatest energy suppliers to Europe and Asia, replacing Russian gas. If our trade partners had been diverse and wide-ranging. If our government had been living within its means, ensuring its public services were efficient and effective. If our productivity had been at the top of the OECD scale. If our borders had been secure with a properly staffed and well-equipped border services agency.

Imagine a Canada that had been fielding strong armed forces, with forward-deployed arctic units, aircraft and submarines able to defend our country, and if our leaders were known to be strong allies who had met and exceeded their commitment to NATO. One of our roles in NATO was to personify the transatlantic link between Europe and North America because of our historic links to France and the United Kingdom. We lost that role long ago through the virtue signalling of our government, our lecturing others about their failures and our inaction in defending our own country.

Trump would have behaved differently towards Canada if we had prioritized the right actions in the last 10 years.

When we first met Poilievre, he told us that he wants to protect Canadians. That was a lot different from the old, tired Liberals who for many years have acted as though they want to do anything but. Today, Canadians are burdened by taxes, identity politics, gatekeepers and a government that has lost touch with its citizens. It is no wonder that Poilievre is pulling in thousands at his rallies. He is speaking and listening to Canadians who want change.

The “new” Liberal party is now pivoting towards the ideas that Poilievre first put forward years ago. Should we trust the same Liberals to implement the very policies that they completely opposed until Trump took office? No. It is time for new leadership that can bring Canada back to its promise and help Canadians achieve their full potential. In our combined 56 years in uniform, we have seen leaders, and Poilievre is a leader.

Before we can fix things with Trump and renew our relationship with the United States, we have to fix Canada right now — not in five years’ time. The only one who can be trusted to do that, and restore hope to Canadians, is Poilievre and the Conservative team around him.

National Post

Lt.-Gen. (retd.) Michel Maisonneuve spent 35 years in the Canadian Army and 10 more as Academic Director of RMC Saint-Jean. His book, In Defence of Canada: Reflections of a Patriot, was published in October 2024 by Sutherland House. Major (retd.) Barbara Krasij spent 21 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force.