lilley: harper slams carney for taking credit for flaherty's work
in letter to conservative party members, stephen harper says mark carney is taking credit for work he didn't do in the financial crisis.
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stephen harper is lashing out at mark carney saying the liberal leadership hopeful is taking credit for work he didn’t do. in a fundraising letter to conservative party members, harper writes that carney’s “experience” isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
it’s another example of carney being called out for false statements. last week he said he was proud to have helped paul martin balance the budget when he never worked with martin at the time and also saying he had nothing to do with moving brookfield’s hq to nyc when he voted for the move.
now he’s being criticized for claiming credit for the work of a man who died more than a decade ago.
during the 2008-09 financial crisis, carney worked with harper and the late jim flaherty, then the finance minister, on canada’s response. carney has tried to use that experience to say that this makes him the man for this moment in the face of trump’s tariff threat.
“carney’s experience is not the day-to-day management of canada’s economy during the global financial crisis,” harper writes.
there’s no doubt that carney was part of a team, but anyone who knows how the government functions, knows that carney’s role would have been the smallest of the three men. carney focused on interest rates and inflation, but the main decisions around stimulus, where to spend and where to cut were all made by harper and flaherty.
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“i have listened, with increasing disbelief, to mark carney’s attempts to take credit for things he had little or nothing to do with back then. he has been doing this at the expense of the late jim flaherty, among the greatest finance ministers in canada’s history, who sadly is not here to defend his record,” harper’s letter states.
“but let me be very clear: the hard calls during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis were made by jim.”
there have been whispers from former cabinet ministers and associates of harper who have spoken with him that he has become increasingly frustrated with carney trading on his experience, but none wanted to go on the record while harper kept silent in public.
he notes in the email to party members that he is speaking out now because of the trump tariff threat and the possibility of a snap election in canada.
“we are currently facing the prospect of completely unjustified tariffs from the united states, which threaten our livelihoods and our independence,” he writes.
“we face these threats at a time when canada should be the wealthiest and most self-reliant economy in the world. we have the resources, the talent, and the opportunity to lead. yet under the liberals, we have fallen behind, way behind.”
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part of the blame for that must go to carney, harper writes, stating that the trudeau government has been taking his advice for years.
“instead of tapping into our potential, the liberals under justin trudeau, with the advice of mark carney, have doubled the debt, doubled housing costs, and doubled food bank lineups,” harper writes.
“they’ve blocked canadian energy while making us reliant on foreign oil, raised taxes on hard-working canadians, and driven half a trillion dollars in investment out of our country.”
harper says he’s pushing his record with the conservatives, because his record as an advisor to trudeau and the liberals is so bad.
harper finishes off by pointing out that carney supports the same policies as justin trudeau, while pierre poilievre “helped my government cut taxes and cut down on crime.”
taking credit for jim flaherty’s work, claiming to work with paul martin, moving brookfield. once again, carney has trouble with the truth.
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