The speech Mark Carney should have given, but didn’t.

A jittery nation needed clear direction, inspiration and hope from its Prime Minister designate. It didn't happen.

Last night, in front of a rather subdued crowd of Liberal party faithful, newly minted Liberal Party leader Mark Carney delivered his acceptance speech for the party’s top job, and as Prime Minister designate.

This moment was supposed to be defining—not just for Carney, but for Canada. With the country deep in a generational affordability and crime crisis, Carney had a chance to offer Canadians hope with his maiden speech to the general Canadian public. Politically, with a general election looming, he needed to use the speech to distance himself from the failed policies of the Trudeau era (where he had served as a senior advisor) and demonstrate to the public that as an unelected man he has the jam to lead.

But Carney’s speech did none of these things and was about as inspiring as a wet noodle. 

Charitably described as "low-key" by venerable political commentator Don Martin, the speech was a recycling of vague platitudes—exactly what Canadians have come to expect from current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decade-old government.  If this was Carney’s attempt to change course, Canadians who tuned in to watch it likely left expecting more of the same. And that is a big problem for the Liberal party as it considers taking the country into a federal general election.

For context, the Liberal Party’s leadership race turnout was embarrassingly low. Only 152,000 people voted—about 38% of the Liberal Party’s active membership. Considering this was the race for the next Prime Minister, and with Parliament shuttered for two months in the middle of a trade war to hold it, a truly reinvigorated party would have had a far higher turnout should. But the race was always a coronation for Carney, with most of Trudeau’s team jumping ship to back him and the status quo of the party’s existing hierarchy. The foregone conclusion of the race and drabness of his competitors meant that Carney was never forced to offer a clear vision or any meaningful difference from the current government over the past two months. Last night’s speech was an opportunity for Carney to change course, but he did not.

With regard to the few policies he did mention, he failed to proactively address their major flaws. For example, he didn’t address the obvious problems of adding a new carbon tax on industrial emitters in critical sectors like the steel industry during the middle of a trade war with the Americans. Nor did he address the fact that his claim to reverse changes in the capital gains tax was problematic due to the fact that the original policy came to pass while he was a senior economic advisor to the Liberal government, and that the change itself never actually made it into law. And on pipelines, Carney didn’t address his decade plus of leading a global crusade against the carbon energy sector at a time when Canada should have been building pipelines to bolster its economy vis a vis the United States. Instead of owning up to the failures of the Liberal party of the last decade and saying how he would reverse course, Carney chose to blame Canada’s Liberal-exacerbated economic weakness solely on other global factors. He also made the highly questionable choice to effusively praise Justin Trudeau’s his leadership.

What’s worse, Carney missed the chance to tackle the serious credibility issues hanging over him. He didn’t address his controversial decision as Brookfield’s board chair to move the company’s headquarters from Toronto to New York City, just after Donald Trump’s campaign threatened massive tariffs on Canada. Nor did he bring up the fact that he’s never disclosed his sizeable stock portfolio to the federal ethics commissioner, raising even more questions about potential conflicts of interest. In one of the few instances he deviated from his Teleprompter script, Carney even went as far as to mock requests for disclosure. These are not small issues—they are the kinds of things Canadians deserve answers on, especially when they’re being asked to trust a leader in such a crisis. Carney’s silence only raises further concerns about his motivations and ethics.

Carney’s speech also failed to offer clarity on his plans for managing the country. At a time when Canadians are vulnerable to political instability, especially with so many already facing precarious job situations, Carney did nothing to calm fears. This continues his trend of hiding from the media during the leadership campaign, where he chose to largely avoid public scrutiny. Since announcing his run, he’s only taken only a handful of questions from Canadian reporters. So last night's speech - at a minimum - should have offered some hints about whether he plans to recall Parliament, when he’ll be sworn in as Prime Minister, if he plans to make major changes to the cabinet, and when and if he plans to answer questions from the public. Transparency and clarity are critical to inspire confidence in a jittery electorate—and Carney’s failure to deliver on this front is a glaring problem.

By contrast, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre held an energized rally in front of several thousand supporters in London, Ontario yesterday. He also held a press availability on Monday morning. Unlike Carney, he outlined a detailed plan to make Canada more competitive and reverse course on harmful policies that the Liberal government championed for more than a decade. 

Carney’s current (and Justin Trudeau’s former) inner circle are likely advising him to keep his head down, avoid the media, and pray that he can coast to victory without the public really scrutinizing him in what is likely to be an imminent federal election. That assumption is predicated on Canadians proffering the Liberals a fourth term without the Liberals atoning for their sins of the last decade, or supporting a Prime Minister who seems incapable of managing even the most basic media scrum. 

With many Canadians living with the costly impact of these policies, that’s a big gamble whose payday only benefits Carney himself.