Canada’s new prime minister and Liberal Party leader, Mark Carney, snapped at reporters on Monday when they questioned his potential conflicts of financial interest, which probably cannot be resolved with full public transparency before the next general election.
Carney succeeded Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada at a party conference on March 9 and became prime minister on March 14 after Trudeau formally resigned from office.
Carney is expected to call for a new general election much sooner than October, which would be the latest date allowed by law. Many observers expect that the election will most likely be announced within a matter of days and held within a few weeks.
The Liberal Party has every reason to move quickly, since polls show that anger over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, combined with the departure of the unpopular Trudeau, has resurrected the moribund Liberal Party and closed a 20-point polling deficit against the rival Conservative Party of Canada.
However, reporters pointed out to a visibly irritated Carney during his press conference after meeting the British prime minister and king in London on Monday, the swift pace of the election means his extensive portfolio of assets probably will not be made public before votes are cast, making it difficult for voters to know if the former central banker has major conflicts of interest.
The Canadian Conflict of Interest Act gives public officials 120 days after the date of their appointment to divest their assets. Carney has elected to put his into a blind trust, but he has not disclosed his assets to the public and is not legally required to do so for 120 days. Technically, he has 60 days from his swearing-in ceremony to disclose his assets to Canada’s ethics commissioner, and the commissioner has 60 days after then to make the information public.
The first reporter to press Carney on the subject on Monday noted that complying with the letter of the law might not be good enough in his case because his financial interests are vast. Among other positions, Carney was the head of “transition investing” for Brookfield Asset Management until January 16, when he resigned to run for leader of the Liberal Party. This put him in charge of billions of dollars of investments for “green energy” projects, which tend to be deeply entwined with politics and bureaucracy.
Brookfield Asset Management has been unwilling to discuss Carney’s compensation, stock options, or other financial benefits. Carney also sat on the boards for dozens of other private sector projects that could have business before his administration if he remains prime minister. Both Carney’s political rivals and the media smell blood in the water, and Carney has grown more peevish as he refuses to answer the same accountability questions over and over again.
“I follow the rules of the ethics commissioner. I’m following them well in advance of any of the requirements, as you know. You know that these requirements come into effect in months. We’re talking days after I became prime minister,” he snapped at a reporter on Monday.
“So, I’m complying with the rules of the ethics commissioner, going through the processes and all these things that are necessary,” he insisted.
Carney repeatedly stated he was “complying with the rules in advance” and had no conflicts of interest to disclose, but when a second reporter said that was “difficult to believe” because his portfolio of assets was so broad, the prime minister exploded.
“Look inside yourself. You start from a prior of conflict and ill will,” he thundered at the reporter.
“I have served in the private sector. I have stood up for Canada. I have left my roles in the private sector at a time of crisis for our country. I’m complying with all the rules,” he repeated.
“Your line of questioning is trying to invent new rules. I’m complying with rules that the Parliament has laid out,” he said, once again eluding the point that the rules do not require him to make disclosures that voters might want to have before a pivotal election.
“If he has nothing to hide, then it’s very easy for him to come forward today and to disclose to Canadians, to finally answer media’s questions about what his financial interests are and what those conflicts of interests are, because that’s what Canadians expect,” Conservative MP Michael Barrett pointed out.
Barrett wrote an open letter to Carney on Sunday urging him to go above and beyond the requirements of the Conflict of Interest Act and fully reveal his assets to the public.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre last week complained about a “Carney loophole” in the Conflict of Interest Act, created when Carney floated into the prime minister’s office without ever winning a single election.
The Conservative Party on Monday chided Carney for being “incredibly defensive and snippy” at his press conference, and taunted the prime minister by listing quite a few conflicts of interest his massive green energy entanglements might cause, from nuclear power and natural gas to real estate and income tax laws.
“The Canadian people deserve to know exactly what Mark Carney is conflicted on and he needs to immediately disclose what assets he placed into a blind trust,” the Conservatives demanded.
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