In a recent post in C2C journal, “The Long Defeat”, Brock Eldon wrote about Pierre Poilievre: “Even his leaders’ debate performance was tepid; instead of verbally dismembering Carney, he and his war room failed to come up with even one devastating put-down.” This is simply not true. He did dismember Carney, delivering a knockout punch that would, in a country that didn’t have a Soviet-style media, have delivered the Conservatives a majority government. Pierre had to operate within the ridiculous debate format, with a moderator, Steve Paikin, who is a notorious Liberal Party bootlicker, and a set of issues that did not specifically include runaway inflation and the affordability problems it had created for Canadians. In spite of that he punched through, using his opportunity to ask another leader a question to ask a question of Carney: “Mr. Carney, in 2020 it was recorded you began advising Justin Trudeau. It's still on the Liberal Party website today that you are Justin Trudeau's economic adviser they might want to update your website on that. O n June 3rd of 2021 you said that inflation would be a sign of economic progress and you advised governments including Justin Trudeau's your Liberal government to print money which led to the worst inflation crisis in a generation. Now that means that mothers went to bed with empty fridges and empty bank accounts worried how they'd feed their kids that seniors worried they'd be evicted from their homes that young people believe they'd never be able to to own a home in the first place. Now in retrospect that you look back on the liberal decisions that you advised Justin Trudeau to take will you look the camera in the eye and apologize to the many people who suffered as a result of the inflationary policies that you advised Justin Trudeau to implement?” By the way, Pierre, if anything, downplayed the catastrophe. A human generation is usually taken to be from 20 to 30 years. However, the June 2022 CPI inflation rate of 8.1% was the highest inflation rate in this country, adjusting for changes in measurement bias, since December 1982, when it was 9.3%. So this was the highest inflation rate in 39½ years, considerably more than a generation.
Carney’s response was unbelievably weak. He said: “You know_it's_I said earlier but I'm going to say it again. I know you want to be running against Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau isn't here.” Pierre countered: “Are you denying that you were his economic adviser?” Then Carney lied flagrantly, twice actually, saying: “I did not provide any of that advice. I did not provide any of that advice.” Then he tried to shift the focus from the inflation surge in Canada when he was Trudeau’s economic advisor to the inflation rate in Canada and in Britain when he was a central bank governor. This was deflection, as he knew that there was no way he could defend the “inflation is good” advice he had been giving in 2021 particularly and win the debate. However, even here he was on shaky ground at least for his performance as governor of the Bank of England. Carney left the Bank of England in the early months of the COVID epidemic. He was there to drop the bank rate from an already very low rate of 0.75% to 0.25% on March 11, and left immediately before the bank rate was dropped to an unprecedented 0.10% on March 19. Carney would have had no problem making the same cut or going lower. After the Brexit referendum he wanted to lower the bank rate to 0.10% or even 0.05%, but did not get the support of his colleagues on the MPC. As it happened, inflation peaked higher in the UK than in Canada in the same business cycle. The RPIJ inflation rate (the most comparable to the Canadian CPI inflation rate) peaked at 13.6% in October 2022, 5.5 percentage points higher than the Canadian peak.
By the way, the June 3, 2021 statement Pierre referenced related to a 2:30 interview he gave to CNN. The blurb accompanying the video says it all: “In an exclusive interview with CNN's Richard Quest, former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney discusses how the sudden rise of inflation is good progress for the economy.” This was precisely a year before inflation would peak in the US, the same month as in Canada, and also at the highest rate in about four decades. This very brief interview should have been shown next morning on every Canadian news network, and repeatedly thereafter, to expose how brutally Carney had lied about his record. Of course it never happened because we now have a mainstream media that act shamelessly as propagandists for the Liberal Party of Canada.
In a recent post in C2C journal, “The Long Defeat”, Brock Eldon wrote about Pierre Poilievre: “Even his leaders’ debate performance was tepid; instead of verbally dismembering Carney, he and his war room failed to come up with even one devastating put-down.” This is simply not true. He did dismember Carney, delivering a knockout punch that would, in a country that didn’t have a Soviet-style media, have delivered the Conservatives a majority government. Pierre had to operate within the ridiculous debate format, with a moderator, Steve Paikin, who is a notorious Liberal Party bootlicker, and a set of issues that did not specifically include runaway inflation and the affordability problems it had created for Canadians. In spite of that he punched through, using his opportunity to ask another leader a question to ask a question of Carney: “Mr. Carney, in 2020 it was recorded you began advising Justin Trudeau. It's still on the Liberal Party website today that you are Justin Trudeau's economic adviser they might want to update your website on that. O n June 3rd of 2021 you said that inflation would be a sign of economic progress and you advised governments including Justin Trudeau's your Liberal government to print money which led to the worst inflation crisis in a generation. Now that means that mothers went to bed with empty fridges and empty bank accounts worried how they'd feed their kids that seniors worried they'd be evicted from their homes that young people believe they'd never be able to to own a home in the first place. Now in retrospect that you look back on the liberal decisions that you advised Justin Trudeau to take will you look the camera in the eye and apologize to the many people who suffered as a result of the inflationary policies that you advised Justin Trudeau to implement?” By the way, Pierre, if anything, downplayed the catastrophe. A human generation is usually taken to be from 20 to 30 years. However, the June 2022 CPI inflation rate of 8.1% was the highest inflation rate in this country, adjusting for changes in measurement bias, since December 1982, when it was 9.3%. So this was the highest inflation rate in 39½ years, considerably more than a generation.
Carney’s response was unbelievably weak. He said: “You know_it's_I said earlier but I'm going to say it again. I know you want to be running against Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau isn't here.” Pierre countered: “Are you denying that you were his economic adviser?” Then Carney lied flagrantly, twice actually, saying: “I did not provide any of that advice. I did not provide any of that advice.” Then he tried to shift the focus from the inflation surge in Canada when he was Trudeau’s economic advisor to the inflation rate in Canada and in Britain when he was a central bank governor. This was deflection, as he knew that there was no way he could defend the “inflation is good” advice he had been giving in 2021 particularly and win the debate. However, even here he was on shaky ground at least for his performance as governor of the Bank of England. Carney left the Bank of England in the early months of the COVID epidemic. He was there to drop the bank rate from an already very low rate of 0.75% to 0.25% on March 11, and left immediately before the bank rate was dropped to an unprecedented 0.10% on March 19. Carney would have had no problem making the same cut or going lower. After the Brexit referendum he wanted to lower the bank rate to 0.10% or even 0.05%, but did not get the support of his colleagues on the MPC. As it happened, inflation peaked higher in the UK than in Canada in the same business cycle. The RPIJ inflation rate (the most comparable to the Canadian CPI inflation rate) peaked at 13.6% in October 2022, 5.5 percentage points higher than the Canadian peak.
By the way, the June 3, 2021 statement Pierre referenced related to a 2:30 interview he gave to CNN. The blurb accompanying the video says it all: “In an exclusive interview with CNN's Richard Quest, former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney discusses how the sudden rise of inflation is good progress for the economy.” This was precisely a year before inflation would peak in the US, the same month as in Canada, and also at the highest rate in about four decades. This very brief interview should have been shown next morning on every Canadian news network, and repeatedly thereafter, to expose how brutally Carney had lied about his record. Of course it never happened because we now have a mainstream media that act shamelessly as propagandists for the Liberal Party of Canada.