At Issue - Mark Carney’s first week as prime minister

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

At Issue this week: Mark Carney uses his first week as prime minister to try to strengthen Canada’s ties with Europe. The federal parties gear up for Sunday’s election call. And Poilievre takes Trump’s jabs as a compliment. Rosemary Barton hosts Chantal Hébert, Althia Raj and Aaron Wherry.

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But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. This is a CBC Podcast. Hey there, I'm Rosemary Barton. This week on At Issue, the podcast edition for Thursday, March 20th.

I want to ensure that France and the whole of Europe works enthusiastically with Canada. And a strategic trip to Canada's north. We must invest in Canada's north. So this week we're asking what's to be made of Mark Carney's first week in office. Chantelle Iber, Althea Raj and Erin Wary join me to talk about that.

Plus, how are the parties preparing for an election call on Sunday? So what's to be made of Carney's first week in office and do his trips give us any insight into his priorities? I'm Rosemary Barton here to break it down tonight. Chantelle Bair, Althea Raj and Erin Wary is in for Andrew Coyne tonight. Good to see all of you. Chantelle I'm gonna start with you. What did you make of that first trip by the Prime Minister? Choosing to meet with key European leaders before meeting with the President and then heading up north as well? I think it was a smart move. Once, for one, it kept

Mark Carney on top of the news every day. Two, he touched all bases. You do well in Quebec when you go to France first, you do well in many parts of Canada when you go to the UK, and you do well overall when you go to Iqaluit and touch on Indigenous people. So basically, the symbolism behind it was interesting, but also the politics as in policy to say, you know, as in policy, to say, you know, Donald Trump, I'm not sure Donald Trump has said Mark Carney's name yet, but Donald Trump is threatening us. There are other things we can be doing. And by the way, I know there's a lot of significance to going to the Arctic. Can I just remember, because I'm the eldest person on this panel, that political leaders tend to go north before an election campaign, because they can't use the time to go north during the election campaign,

which is how I got to Iqaluit with Brian Mulroney and Jean-Claude Seigne. Yeah, yeah, it is also much easier to go to Iqaluit when you have your plane, the government plane, rather than your, well, yeah, I guess you've had, I'm trying to get it safe. Yeah, yeah, it is also much easier to go to a calliope when you have your plane, the government plane rather than your, well, yeah, I guess you've had, you've got rented planes, but yes, now all three of them have been to Nunavut before the election campaign, so wouldn't expect them to go back. You're quite right.

Althea, what did you make of some of the signals that the prime minister was sending this week? He was trying to send a message that this is a man of action, this man's not going to wait on the sidelines. I don't think there was a lot of deliverables that came out of man of action, this is a man who's not going to wait on the sidelines. I don't think there was a lot of deliverables that came out of the European trip, but I agree with all the points Chantan made. The symbolism was important. Add to that, he had a meeting with Legault, he had a meeting with Ford, he had a meeting with Daniel Smith today, he walked in the St. Patrick's parade in Montreal. He made announcements that brought the comparison against Pierre Poiliev. The announcement in Iqaluit was a reminder that when Pierre Poiliev went to Iqaluit,

he announced a military base there without talking to anybody there about building a military base there. He stole the thunder out of the carbon tax campaign that Pierre Poiliev has been on for about two and a half years by making his first move a cabinet decision that they were going to bring the price down to zero and eventually get rid of it. Again, this morning, Thursday morning in Edmonton, he makes an announcement that's incredibly similar to Pierre Poiliev's housing announcement, but also adds on top of that that he's going to boost the home accelerator

fund, which is something that conservative MPs have asked the government for more money for their communities for. So it's been very smart tactically that he gets to use this week so Canadians get used to seeing him as prime minister in the hopes, the liberals' hope, that Canadians will like what they see and give him the job on a more permanent basis. Yeah, I mean it's kind of been an advantage for him frankly. It's been a huge advantage and it will be, it will continue to be a huge advantage during the election campaign when you have Donald Trump levying

tariffs on April 2nd and Mark Carney being able to be, yeah, the liberal leader on the campaign but also the Prime Minister making decisions. Yeah? Yeah, look, I think the optics are obvious. I mean, look, that's not new. Every Prime Minister at one time or another goes abroad and gets a chance to look Prime Ministerial. I might suggest that he could, you know, look inside himself and summon some patients when – a bit more patients when dealing with reporters. But other than that, I thought it went off fine and there weren't any major hiccups.

I think, though, that sort of beyond the optics, Althea's right that there weren't major deliverables in this trip, but you did, when he was at least back in Canada, have things like the story in the New York Times about the Canada-EU military supply deal, the deal with Australia to invest in radar technology. I think those are concrete things, but I think it also really goes to sort of where policy and the conversation is going next.

We've had the conversation, obviously, about how to respond to tariffs, but the bigger conversation is sort of where Canada fits in the world, how Canada should engage with the world. And that, you know, I think that is really kind of the substance and what really matters coming out of this trip is that you start to see sort of where, you know, not only he seems to think we need to be going, but potentially where Canada will end up going. Yeah, I mean, obviously I was on the trip. So that kind of struck me as well, is the intent to realign the country with other allies and other allies who have obviously major security and defense assets and who could potentially help Canada if needed. I don't know whether you thought there was, like regardless of the clear deliverables, It was the start of that conversation. It seemed to me Chantal Yes for sure and it also Sent the message to the Trump administration that there are other things that Canada can be doing in the world and other people that it can deal with

I'll just go back to the Day the the bump in the road and the scrum. Why it should worry handlers of Mr. Carney is that after two days of very intense traveling meetings, which were a lot more like a normal election campaign pace, to tell you the truth, than the leadership campaign ever was, like a normal election campaign pace, to tell you the truth, than the leadership campaign never was. He started to get testy and impatient and frustrated and scrum. And I'm thinking good luck on day 20,

because that is what the future holds for Mark Carney. It's 30 some days of nonstop proximity to media who will be asking him questions that are unwelcome. And when he will get the opportunity to kind of ruin this day's message by being testy and impatient. So I'm curious to see how he stands up to that scrutiny because there is nothing like an election campaign. But those two or three days, they were more like an election campaign than anything he's seen during the leadership campaign. For sure. Last quick word to you, Althea. two or three days they were more like an election campaign than anything is seen during the leadership campaign. For sure. Last quick word to you, Althea. I'm sure his

handlers are not happy that that happened but they should be thankful that it happened before the writ than during the writ because now they have time to sit him down and tell him what a disastrous move that was and why he cannot do that and they are trying desperately to have that contrast with Pierre Poliev. And Mr. Poliev stands and picks fights with reporters all the time and has this condescending, arrogant tone with a journalist whose questions he doesn't agree with. And Mr. Carney seemed to have the exact same problem. It manifests in a slightly different way, but whether it's, sorry, Rosie, telling you

that your question is coming from a place of ill will, or today in Edmonton when he suggested that the answer to the question was the answer that he wanted to give and not the answer the reporter wanted to give, this is not a good look for him. And if he wants to be that Mr. Sunshine and optimism and compare against the dark gloom that Pierre Poiljes has, he cannot respond to journalists questions that way because they're all being live-streamed to everybody on the internet and they see

everything. They see everything the leader is responding. Okay we're gonna leave that part there if we can. When we come back we're gonna look ahead to the federal election. It's really gonna happen. Mark Carney is gonna visit the Governor-General on Sunday to dissolve Parliament and kick off the federal election. How will it unfold? That's next. Who's going to put working people first? It's not going to be Pierre Poyev. It's certainly not going to be Mark Carney. It's going to be us.

In this time of crisis is that the government needs a strong and clear mandate. Mark Carney will back down and his liberal policies will keep Canada weak, just like Trump wants. So how are the parties positioned ahead of an election call? What should we be watching for? Let's bring everybody back.

Chantel, Althea, and Aaron. Aaron, I'll start you off because you didn't get two goes on the last one. What is exciting about this election is that it is a race now. It is not a foregone conclusion who is going to win. And that means that the campaign here will matter. What are you watching for as it kicks off? I mean, we'll see initially how everyone tries to frame the ballot question.

To a certain degree, there's a bit of commonality, I think, at this point, that everyone understands that Donald Trump and the state of the country are, the state of the country in terms of how well we can withstand Trump, are kind of the main issues. But, you know, if you look at some of the polling and, you know, not just the top line party numbers, but some of the individual polling on when Canadians are asked, you know, to compare the party leaders and in the context of Trump, there's a pretty clear advantage at this point for Mark Carney and that seems to be reflected in the top-line party numbers. So, you know, how does how does Pierre Poliev sort of respond to that, I think, is the first big question and whether he can, you know, reframe this question in a way that benefits him.

The liberal rise has been so sudden and fast that it's, I think, fair to wonder whether it could fall back even just a bit. But at this point, it feels like a completely different campaign than we were having two or three months ago, and I think that the big question right now is whether Pierre Poliev can some way recenter the campaign in a way that's more beneficial to him. Yeah, I think that's big question right now is whether Pierre Poilier can someway re-center the campaign in a way that's more beneficial to him.

Yeah, I think that's a good point. It's not clear to me how soft that support is for the Liberals and Mark Carney, but it's very clear that the NDP and the Bloc are in big, big trouble. That seems to be a clear point. Chantal, your thoughts? I think the NDP is the hardest task. Now that voters have seen someone who is leading the liberals that could possibly be Pierre Poilier, plus the Trump factor, that is driving their voters to the liberals. And I'm not so sure that there's a

strategy to stop it, but I know one thing. To use the strategy of I'm going to to be the prime minister in L'Enquête-Mitsé, it's not gonna work. Yeah. Even diehard New Democrats don't believe that. The Bloc also has, I mean, the Bloc lives with the memory of the Orange Wave in 2011, and how it started strong in a campaign and disappeared. So if François Blanchet's job is more complicated than it used to be, the fear of a wave,

if you look at today's numbers, they are really bad for the bloc and really good for the liberals. But a campaign in Quebec always makes a difference. So, the argument that you want someone to check the next government so that it keeps Quebec interest in mind is easier to sell than Jacques Mead's things. I'm going to be Prime Minister-like. I do think Pierre Poirier has a problem in the sense that it's, is, is CB does not make him the obvious person to deal with Trump. The liberals traditionally have been the party that stands up to the US. Think of the Iraq war, think of Lester B. Pearson in Vietnam. So they do have claiming rights for that. And I believe that Mr. Poilier stands to suffer from not having built a team. But maybe he's got one in his back pocket that we will see next week,

and I will be watching for that. Althea's shaking her head. That's not the case, Althea. That's not from what I hear. No, unfortunately for them. I guess a few things. Pierre Poilier's problem is twofold on the Trump factor. People don't think that he is going to be the toughest negotiator vis-a-vis Donald Trump. So he needs to be even more anti-Trump in some way than the liberals to be seen as tougher, to try to show Canadians, potential voters for the conservatives, that he can bring that fight.

At the same time, if he does become prime minister, that's a terrible position in the long run to be viewed as insulting, antagonistic to the American president. So it can backfire easily. The other thing is he risks alienating his own voters, his own voter base, who actually admire some of the things that Donald Trump is saying. So it's a very difficult position for him. The conservatives also, frankly, they've been a very difficult position for him. The conservative has also, frankly, they've been a victim of their own success. You know, they basically killed Justin Trudeau. They killed the carbon tax, the one issue they wanted to run on, by being so successful

in prosecuting it. And frankly, they kind of killed Jagmeet Singh too, by dragging out the coalition and tying him to Justin Trudeau and all these years of what they called corrupt government reminding people or telling people, because I don't think this was true at all, that Jagmeet Singh was only in it for his pension, they destroyed the man. And they are as much responsible for the NDP being in the disastrous position that they are in than, in my opinion, many of the policy stances and strategic moves that the NDP has made. How the NDP digs themselves out of it, frankly, I do not know when the race seems to be a binary choice.

But I also agree that that vote is incredibly fluid. Just like the concertos misinterpreted the support for Pierre Poiliev, thinking it was a support for the agenda Pierre Poiliev was vocalizing when it was really just an anti-Trudeau vote. People believe in what they think Mr. Carney is selling or who he is. And that vote, I think, can move. And the conservatives, Pierre Poiliev here, I don't think believes that he will get another shot.

And so this is going to be a Stortz-Schritt campaign. They will throw everything at it. They will try to destroy Mark Carney. And I think that vote can move. I agree. I think also when you've had a 20, 25-point lead and you don't have it anymore, you're going to do whatever you can to still try and win.

And so that might make it pretty ugly. Aaron? I mean, I think we still don't know how Mark Carney will hold up in an election campaign, and that would seem to be the one route available or obvious at this point for the Conservatives to get back into this would be for Mark Carney to falter, to take some positions that don't pan out very well, to have a kind of Turner in 1984 campaign. I think the challenge for Mr. Poliev in seeing that possibly happen is that Mark Carney has sort of shrunk

some of the policy differences, right? Even beyond the Trump question, the domestic policy options have sort of, the carbon tax is off the table. The capital gains changes are off the table. Mark Carney's talking about spending less and cutting back on the government. But the liberals have also still kept, you know, things like climate policy and social programs on the table

that, you know, maybe Pierre Poliev doesn't really want to fight on those grounds necessarily. So it's hard to know how Pierre Poliev kind of tries to win this campaign in terms of what he tries to do to try to win it back. But it's also hard to know how Pierre Pauliev kind of tries to win this campaign in terms of what he tries to do to try to win it back but it's also hard to know how well Mark Carney does over a five-week sort of free-for-all. Last minute to you Chantal. It's also hard to know how Pierre Pauliev prosecutes Mark Carney except by ads and there is a limit to that with no media on this tour. Yes, you're right. And do you want to say more about that? The fact that he's not...

So we're not allowed to travel with the Conservatives. I totally understand that the Pierre Poirier would not want the media on his tour. The relationship he's had with journalists is so toxic that to imagine that they would all spend 30 days together on the same plane every day boggles the mind. But yes, you can talk to local journalists, but you need to get, if you're going to prosecute Mark Carney, you're not going to be able to do it

locally. You need to do it nationally. And that's going to be an issue at some point. Yeah, he is, the campaign is giving reporters two to three days notice to get to locations, but that is going to limit who can get there for sure. And we'll see how that plays out for them, I guess. We have to take a short break, but when we come back, we'll talk about Donald Trump's comments about Pierre Poiliev and how the Conservative leader has responded. That's next. The Conservative that's running is stupidly no friend of mine.

I don't know him, but he said negative things. I think it's easier to deal actually with a liberal and maybe they're going to win. On that point, it's true. I'm a strong leader. I'm a tough guy to deal with. I'm firm in my convictions and I'll always put Canada first. So what's been made of the president's comments on the Canadian election? How could they affect support for Pierre Poilé, for Mark Carney? Let's bring everyone back, Chantal, Althea and Erin.

Althea, what do you think? How do you read these comments by the president and the way the conservative leader responded? I think actually both camps think they won on that issue. I think the conservatives think they got this gift of gold from Donald Trump because it was exactly the kind of attack that they were hoping to get to prove that Pierre Poliev can be a tough negotiator and people are afraid of him. So they've been posting it everywhere on social media and I'm sure it will probably find itself in a paid ad at some point.

The flip side is the liberals don't necessarily think it hurt them because Donald Trump says that he'd rather deal with a liberal and it kind of makes it seem like maybe the liberals are the adults in the room. So in a way he kind of gave a win to both sides. But I do think, you know, because it dominated kind of social media news cycle for 24 hours, it shows the impact that Donald Trump is likely to have in the next six, seven weeks of this election campaign

because he can say anything that forget what policy announcements, whether they want to talk about, you know, pre-approving energy corridors, or they want to talk about housing, Donald Trump energy corridors, or they want to talk about housing, Donald Trump's going to say something, and we're all going to run, we being the media, we're all going to run, and the public's going to run to see what Donald Trump said

and how the camps have responded to it. Yeah, and that's sort of the unknown factor of this election campaign, is how he might blow it up at various points. Chantal, what did you make of his comments? Well, we will be talking about Donald Trump if only because of that so-called tear of day on April 2nd, which is about what he does rather than what he says.

A lot of Canadians want a prime minister who will stand up to Donald Trump, but also one who will make things better. I'm not sure that that hope can be fulfilled. So I'm with Althea on this. I think both sides got what they liked out of it. But at the end of the day, Donald Trump's non-endorsement or endorsement is not going to determine the outcome of this campaign. And the, you know, the Conservatives main fault on this is they always overplay their hand. So no, Donald Trump did not endorse Mark Carney. And it would be best to just, you know, leave the comments where they are rather than try to spin them out of proportion.

Yeah, just take the win and walk away. Aaron, last word to you. Yeah, you know, to be honest, I feel like we get into kind of a weird space, not us, but just in general. The country, if we start worrying about what foreign leaders say about our politics, and I think when it comes to the American president, you also end up having to try to guess at, you know, his sincerity or motivations or what game he may be playing at. The fact that the conservatives sort of rally

around these conversations, the comments that Donald Trump makes, the previous comment he made about Pierre Poliev not being MAGA, to me it speaks to a certain amount of defensiveness, the willingness to the eagerness to kind of show that there's a differentiation between the two of them, that even though Pierre Poliev is a populist and Donald Trump is a populist they're not the same or they're not alike. I just you know it'll I also find there's just a tinge of irony to the

fact that we spent two years worrying about foreign interference and now we have politicians embracing American presidents what American presidents say about our politics. Yeah. Oh the liberals embrace Barack Obama endorsing Justin Trudeau. So they're... And Bill Clinton came and told the Canadians how we liked a united Canada. Yeah, yeah. So it's interference, influence. We'll take a little bit, but not too much, as long as it's like totally clear. Anyway, thank you all. We're gonna be busy for the next number of weeks. I appreciate you now and in many of the days ahead. That is at issue for this week. We're getting ready for a busy election and we of course want to hear from you.

If you're an undecided voter, first-time voter, or thinking about not voting at all, let us know. Send us an email at ask at cbc.ca. Remember, you can catch me on Rosemary Barton Live Sundays at 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll be back in your podcast feeds this Sunday as part of our election call special. Remember, you can catch me on Rosemary Barton Live, Sundays at 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll be back in your podcast feeds this Sunday as part of our election call special. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.