The predictable happened Sunday night with the coronation of Mark Carney as the Liberals’ new leader with an overwhelming 131,674 votes (87%). Other contenders weren’t even close: Chrystia Freeland wasn’t even competitive, receiving only 11,134 votes (7%); Karina Gould, 4,785 votes (3%); and Frank Baylis, 4,038 votes (3%).
It is worth noting that 400,000 people registered to vote. Of those people who registered to vote, only 163,836 people were successfully authenticated, the majority (60%) were rejected. Only 151,631 Liberals voted, hardly a ringing endorsement of Carney’s leadership bid. Compare that to the 2022 Conservative Leadership race, in which 412,690 Conservatives voted, Poilievre receiving 295,285 votes to secure the leadership on the first ballot. The total numbers show that the Conservative leadership race resulted in much more engagement by the membership in the election of their leader, than did the Liberal leadership race. This points to the fact that the Liberals are the party of elites and have lost the ability to gather support from rank-and-file Canadians. Moreover, Liberal voting data reveals that Carney’s path to the throne came from ridings located in the wealthiest neighbourhoods such as Toronto’s Rosedale, Ottawa’s Carleton, Vancouver Quadra, West Vancouver and Ottawa–Vanier–Gloucester’s Rockcliffe Park. None of these voters experience the pain of inflation or of a jobless economy. They do not reflect most of us. They are a far cry from the neighbourhoods of average working Canadians.
Given the Liberal candidates’ $350,000 entrance fee to enter this race, one wonders about the financial integrity of spending such money with so little to show for it. That’s basically a $1,050,000 donation the three losers deposited in Liberal Party coffers.
Now that Carney has become the Liberal leader without a seat in Parliament, lacking a mandate only a general election can bestow, there will be the usual mainstream media articles shouting from the roof tops that the Liberals, and by extension Canada, have been saved and that a new dawn is just around the corner. Don’t be fooled by the inevitable onslaught of propaganda. REAL Women remains highly sceptical of such claims for one simple reason: have the Liberal policies of the last ten years based on the climate change scam and the net-zero economy brought economic prosperity and national unity to Canada? The answer is obvious.
Echoing Carney’s own climate change hysteria and preference for massive government regulation, the divisive doctrine of Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI), and the equally obnoxious corporate scam of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) Liberal policy has been a disaster. Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with Carney’s 2021 book, Value(s): Building a Better World for All will appreciate the fact that Carney is not part of the solution, but rather is part of the problem.
Given the Liberals’ dismal track record, a record of scandal and incompetence, on which they can’t run, they prefer to invent a bogyman (Trump) and run a campaign based on economic nationalism (anti-tariff). Such a proposition is pure hypocrisy given Canada’s extensive use of high tariffs to protect its “supply management” policies, such as protecting chicken and turkey products, table eggs, broiler hatching eggs and dairy products.
On the night of his coronation, Carney vowed to keep “Canada strong” against Donald Trump. Really? What does “strong” mean? Here are a few inconvenient facts:
- Canada’s GDP for 2024 was $2.2 trillion/ US GDP was $29.2 trillion;
- Canada’s Productivity Gap – Canadian workers are some 30% less productive than their American counterparts;
- in 2023, 70% of Ontario’s natural gas was supplied from the U.S. sourced mostly from fracked gas from Pennsylvania and Ohio;
- much of the crude oil for Ontario’s diesel, gasoline and jet fuel passes into Ontario through Enbridge Pipeline 5 which runs through Wisconsin and Michigan;
- Canada’s once proud military is suffering from advanced DEI disease and our navy seems to be in perpetual drydock;
- 80% of Canada’s firefighting equipment comes from the US.
The above list could go on for pages. The reality is that the US and Canadian economies have been integrated for years, and in this integration Canada is the junior partner. But this does not mean Canada can’t enter into a mutually beneficial agreement with the US. Canada is not a helpless victim, after all Canada has rich resources that the US needs. Mr. Trump is a negotiator. He wants us to negotiate. Why aren’t we negotiating with him?
Make no mistake, Mark Carney is no political saviour, nor is he about to do a 180 on Trudeau’s catastrophic legacy, a legacy for which he is as much responsible as Trudeau himself. The challenges facing Canadians and Canada, if it is to survive, require fundamental systemic changes to our tax and energy sector structures and political culture, something the Liberals are incapable of doing.
Mr. Carney and the Liberals think they are headed for success. They may be surprised by reality.
For further information contact:
Pauline Guzik
National President
REAL Women of Canada
Cathy Smith
Western Canada Board Member
REAL Women of Canada
Email: info@realwomenofcanada.ca
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