Enough of this Mark the Great Liberal Hope blather

In a moment of weakness last night, I actually volunteered to attend the weekly meetings of a Toronto-based Liberal breakfast group. This will surprise those of you who are aware that my first political convention was the 1976 federal PC Leadership contest. If math isn’t your forte, that was 36 years ago. More recently, I spent five very enjoyable years as a political assistant during former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s term in office.

But a Liberal breakfast? Odd, right?! It’s not that I don’t have many close friends and colleagues who vote that way. I’m proud to say I once nominated a former Liberal Hill staffer for membership at The Albany Club of Toronto — once they’d settled onto Bay Street, anyway. And I’ve been the guest of Liberal MPP Glen Murray at a talkfest called the Camden Club (or something like that).

This talkfest was different, though I doubt I’d have been welcome.

According to one source, former Toronto Mayor David Crombie gets together each week with a small group of like-minded souls for the primary purpose of discussing the ins-and-outs of how they might convince Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to run for the federal Liberal Leadership. It seemed quite conceivable, of course. Not that he’d be interested, what with his two day jobs and all. But conceivable in the sense that a group of political aficionados might conclude that Governor Carney would make for a fabulous political candidate.

This is not a new concept. I recall making the same copyrighted point more than two years ago (see prior post “Governor Carney’s future political career looking good” Sept 10-10), although my script eventually had Prime Minister Harper appointing Governor Carney as Minister of Economic Transformation (see prior post “How about Carney as Minister of Economic Transformation?” Feb 8-11), which presumably would require him to sign a blue membership card (versus the red one). Something that he’s never done before, I’m guessing. Nothing came to pass from my day dream, and the idea quickly wound up in the dustbin where many a blog goes to die. Forgotten. Perhaps for good reason.

Which brings us to the latest dream sequence, albeit not the one I had in mind. At some point between yesterday morning and tonight, the story broke. Greg Weston, of CBC News, appears to have been first out of the gate with an piece about unnamed Liberals allegedly working the Governor over. This was followed by an encouraging column written by Daniel D. Veniez in the Huffington Post. And Canadian Press journo Joan Bryden did her own story on this “draft Carney” movement, after discovering that Tim Murphy, once chief of staff to former Prime Minister Paul Martin, had publicly christened the signature page of the new the “Mark Carney for leader” Facebook page.

Why are they all wasting their time writing stories with no identified sources? Beyond a single Facebook Page with a lone lawyers’ signature, at least as of a few hours ago. Not to ignore the fact that these internet things can go viral, right before your eyes. But where’s the institutional memory? It was as recent as September 16th when Zerohedge was tweeting that “Canada/Goldman’s Mark Carney now second favorite to head BOE at William Hill”. A job that Governor Carney rejected for at least the second time (if it were to be offered), during a BBC interview earlier this month.

Less than two weeks ago, folks were still betting that HE was going to the Bank of England. Now Mark the Great Liberal Hope is going to knock off Justin Trudeau, find a safe Liberal seat to run in, and begin the complicated process of crafting a stump speech that will harshly criticize Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s economic policies over the past six years.

Eventually, the time might be right for Governor Carney to take a walk in the snow and consider all of these delightful compliments. Politics may well be his ultimate calling. But now’s not that time, regardless of the political stripe he winds up sporting. There are many paths to the Prime Minister’s Office, but as Joe Clark, John Crosbie, Michael Wilson, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Jean Charest, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Peter Mackay, Hugh Segal, Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, and Stephen Harper will attest, it’s nothing like the story spun by the candidate’s kitchen cabinet of experienced politicos. Or breakfast club, as the case may be.

As Bill Davis, Frank McKenna, David Peterson, Dalton McGuinty and the late Peter Lougheed might remind us, there are times when the right thing to do is turn a deaf ear to those who would have you risk it all on a 24 Sussex gambit.

Last time I checked, the European financial crisis was still unresolved, many large economies had slipped back into recession, and the newish Chair of the Financial Stability Board has some unfinished business. As the Bobbies who stand outside the Bank of England might be heard to say: “Move along, there’s nothing to see here.”

MRM
(disclosure: this blog, as always, reflects a personal view and is not meant to represent the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)