Mark Carney: Canada's Unelected Prime Minister
Never Trust a Man Who Enjoys Smelling His Own Farts
Mark Carney launched his campaign for Liberal leader this past week. And because Canadian politics works the way it does, if Carney wins, he'll be our temporary unelected prime minister.
So who is Mark Carney? He went on Jon Stewart's left-wing comedy show to perform a textbook case of projection. He's just as guilty of everything he accused Pierre Poilievre of.
In a more roundabout, technocratic way.
Let me demonstrate.
Mark Carney published Values: Building a Better World for All. The book's thesis is that "market fundamentalism" prioritizes short-term gains over long-term social value and that technocrats like him must rein in unrestricted capitalism.
This ideology still works on many people. It stopped working on me in 2008. For others, it took until 2020-21 to see what a giant fraud this system was.
Mark Carney's still peddling the grift. He could sell it for a few undecided voters or the more fiscally sound Canadians who settle for Poilievre because Trudeau couldn't balance a chequebook.
But let's not critique Carney from a conservative angle. Let's continue with this… I don't know, post-leftist, green libertarian fascist idea I've stumbled upon and cannot get out of my head.
In other words, let's critique Mark Carney using my unique brand of schizo politics.
Values: A CliffsNotes Version
Mark Carney presents us with a history that didn't happen.
He writes about the rise of market society and how value went from being objective—based on one's labour—to subjective.
Subjective value drives markets and commodifies human life, says Carney. It reduces everything to monetary worth, thereby eroding social values.
Fast-forward to the 2008 Financial Crisis, and it's proof in the pudding. Free markets have failed. Never mind the low interest rate conditions fuelling the crisis or the fact that value has always been subjective.
According to Carney, the problem was "market fundamentalism," a lack of regulation, and too much greed. Reform is needed—a more straightforward, safer, and fairer financial system.
Designed and operated by him, of course.
Carney and other "post-national" technocrats believe climate change calls for more centralized power and control. Pollution is proof that unfettered capitalism misplaces value.
Mark Carney runs in the same crowd as Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum and real-life Bond villain. Many call these elites "globalists." It's just as accurate to call them post-national technocrats.
Either way, they want to "reclaim our values" because they know better.
I'm not being hyperbolic. That is literally the title of the third section in Carney's book: "Part III: Reclaiming Our Values."
Carney wants centralized leadership, "stakeholder capitalism," and "mission-oriented capitalism," where markets are coerced to serve technocratic goals.
He writes of "social capital" but heavily emphasizes top-down regulation and institutional control. So he's either a liar or an idiot.
Mark Carney either knows he's pulling a con or is just as stupid as Justin Trudeau.
Either way — never trust a man who enjoys smelling his own farts.
Values: A Critique
Mark Carney calls climate change a problem—there is no disagreement about that—but his proposals are unrealistic.
Carney's plan calls for a broad global consensus and cooperation. Good luck with that one. He can't even get people in his country to like and follow him.
Instead, encourage decentralized green energy grids to empower individuals and communities. Local and regional innovations are our best bet. Climate change is too nuanced and multifaceted to be handled by central planners with a pretense of knowledge.
If Carney wants to do something at a federal level, subsidize vertical and urban farming. Massively gut taxes (or at least offer incentives) for small-scale renewable energy projects.
Like most of his ilk, Carney won't see local autonomy among the preferred options. His book doesn't even address the cultural factors that influence these "societal values" capitalism has apparently destroyed or misplaced.
Since the Breitbart Doctrine "politics is downstream from culture" is considered reactionary and right-wing, I'm sure Carney safely ignores the principle and its consequences.
However, before developing a mass cult of personality that technocrats can integrate into policy-making, let's discuss the fatal flaw with Mark Carney's book.
Who Reforms the Reformers?
Since Mark Carney is a banker, we shouldn't be surprised his book overlooks the spiritual and existential aspects of "value."
Carney reduces the concept to its monetary and moral dimensions. He assumes he and others can reform our institutions to channel their superior ideas of "value." He trusts this can be done without addressing these institutions' entrenched corruption or elitism.
And therein lies the problem with Mark Carney and others who think and act like him. They want to be reformers, but who will reform the reformers?
We've had decades of "public-private partnerships," centralized control, taxes and regulation, and narrative-driven capitalism.
The problem is these elite billionaires who have been in charge of everything. They long ago bought up all the politicians. Donald Trump is a trump card to get conservatives and libertarians on board with the North American Union.
He's a trump card. It's literally his name.
Carney and these post-national technocrats have had decades to implement their vision. Carney told Jon Stewart he was an "outsider," but what he's on the outside of is unclear.
He's worked in both Liberal and Conservative governments. He was the head of the freaking central bank not only in Canada but the U.K. as well. He's a former Goldman Sachs and an all-around asshat elitist.
His signature is on Canadian money.
Just look at the bill he left taxpayers across the pond, and you can see how he's more of the same "let them eat cake" leader Justin Trudeau has been.
These people and their elitist culture have been in charge of the system for decades. All they've done is destroy the climate and concentrate wealth and power in their hands.
And now they want to "reset" it.
Fuck off.
Mark Carney is a marketing gimmick masquerading as a human being.
His job is to persuade the average Canadian that the Liberals are on their side and that his intent is your interest.
But why should Canadians trust those who have benefited from the system with the task of reforming it?
And reform is in the cards. I can't imagine Mark Carney, or whoever becomes the Liberal leader, will campaign on "business as usual."
Canadians are struggling and want change. Institutions need reforming. Hopefully, voters will see Mark Carney as the con man he is.
Mark Carney Doesn't Understand Money
Funny, coming from a banker. But if we take what he wrote in Values seriously, what other interpretation do we have?
Mark Carney criticizes markets without understanding what they are.
All human action is necessarily economic. It has to be. We live in a world of scarcity.
Mark Carney thinks putting dollars and cents on everything is barbaric and immoral. He's essentially admitting his ignorance.
It's funny coming from a banker. But then again, banking is no longer the respected profession it once was. And you can see why if you read Carney's book.
He writes,
Markets are essential to progress, to finding solutions to our most pressing problems, but they don’t exist in a vacuum. Markets are social constructs, whose effectiveness is determined partly by the rules of the state and partly by the values of society.
State and society do not determine scarcity.
Markets are a social construct the same way mathematics is. Good luck doing rocket science without trigonometry.
Carney positions himself as the arbiter of markets and values. He implies his expertise is required to "balance" the unbridled passions of the masses with the expertise of his technocratic oversight.
He sees himself as a winemaker. "The market is humanity destined," Carney writes. And his job is to "turn the grappa back into wine, to turn the market back into humanity."
And just in case you thought this was all voluntary, Carney makes his veiled endorsement for power over businesses and communities:
Firms that align their business models with the transition to a net-zero carbon economy will be rewarded handsomely; those that fail to adapt will cease to exist… How Canada can lead in building value for all: strong institutions, mandatory workforce training, and balancing the rights of all stakeholders… Markets on their own will never be adequately incentivized to build social capital.
What gives Carney and other elitists the right to do all this? Climate change.
According to Carney, climate change is the "ultimate betrayal of intergenerational equity," and because "the current generation has no direct incentives to fix," he must take it upon himself to set things right.
How noble and saintly of him. We should be so gracious to have walked the planet at the same time as these wise sages like Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau, and Klaus Schwab.
Praise be Science™
Mark Carney Doesn't Define “Markets”
Despite promoting "stakeholder capitalism," and warning against "market fundamentalism," Mark Carney never gives us a concrete definition of markets.
Here's my definition: markets are spontaneous orders arising from voluntary exchanges.
Carney and I agree that markets are tools used to achieve collective goals. But he shifts far away from individuals and relies too heavily on state institutions' power and their (supposedly) incorruptibility.
But markets are fundamentally about individuals coordinating their actions freely to meet mutual needs. It's a tool like our fingers and opposable thumbs are tools.
Who are you to tell me what to do with my hands?
Because Carney sees markets as instruments of policy rather than organic systems arising from concerted human behaviour, his solutions are all top-heavy.
He skips leg day. He prioritizes central control and regulation.
This is evident in the line: "Value is increasingly equated with monetary worth, as determined by the market, but this diminishes what truly matters to society."
How can he know that? How can anyone know that? What "truly matters to society" is anyone's guess. I recommend looking at actual human activity and then developing a theory.
Mark Carney has done it the other way around. His book doesn't seek answers. His book muscles history, science, facts, and definitions into his preconceived solutions.
Mark Carney is either an idiot or a conman who should be kept far from the prime minister's office. It's bad enough he was the country's central banker.
Carney's thesis is that subjective value is a moral failing. Your preferences that don't align with his are fundamentally wrong.
Carney is not a banker or politician. He's a priest with a superior knowledge of the Bible. Listen to him or risk going to Hell.
Mark Carney Doesn't Understand Economics
Case in point: the marginalist revolution solved the "paradox of value" in economics. For example, why is water cheaper than diamonds when we need water to live, and diamonds are just useless shiny minerals?
Because we don't value all the water in the world versus all the diamonds. We make individual choices on a marginal basis.
I've got drinking water flowing cheaply from every tap in my house. Ergo, a couple of carats of diamonds, which I do not have but beautiful women crave, will yield a higher price.
That's the simplified version, but it answers Mark Carney's questions about value and what society "truly" values.
Of course, Carney is betting that you are unfamiliar with the marginalist revolution. Enough for him to dismiss or recast it as incomplete or flawed. His entire book is an exercise in rhetoric aimed at undermining sound economic principles.
Values: A Schizo Critique
If the above sounded like a conservative-libertarian critique, it's because I essentially agree with classical liberal notions about economics.
Carl Menger
Ludwig von Mises
Friedrich Hayek
Murray Rothbard
Say what you will about right-wing American libertarian theory or even "Austrian" economics as a "science," the fact remains. There's knowledge to be had in praxeology.
It may not be scientific knowledge. It may break down at a deep philosophical level. We may need empirical data to back up the logic, but it is sound.
Who says tautologies can't teach you something new?*
Anyway, the epistemological essence of praxeology is another post for another day. For now, let's cut Mark Carney some slack.
Let's agree with his general thesis: climate change is a problem that capitalism is not addressing effectively.
Now the question is: what are we going to do about it?
Suppose Mark wins the leadership and becomes prime minister despite not even being an MP.
Suppose NDP leader Jagmeet Singh still prefers a Liberal minority government over a Conservative majority. With Trudeau out of the picture, he can keep the show going until October 2025, when we legally must have an election.
Suppose Mark calls me up.
"Caleb, I read your Substack, you're right. Let's implement your vision of a green Canada."
With pleasure, Mark.
First, dismantle the Bank of Canada, end the chartered bank oligopoly, direct the Royal Mint to issue small denominations of gold and silver coins, and legalize competing currencies and free-market banking.
Second, massively gut taxes—eliminate entire categories of them—and legalize competing social services. As in, fire every Ottawa bureaucrat. They shouldn't expect others to finance their income and pension if their profession lacks market demand.**
Third, Crown Land should be opened up for individual purchase. Encourage earthship homes. Encourage the exodus North to rebuild our communities with green, holistic intentions. Work with Indigenous tribes to make this happen. Cultivate a cult of personality based on actual environmental conservation.
Fourth, reform agriculture and prioritize regenerative farming. Encourage bison production. We're not going to eat bugs. We're going to hunt North America's natural ruminant animal—shame people who eat ultra-processed foods as parasites to the universal health care system.
Fifth, fuck electric cars. Having children mine cobalt in third-world countries is not sustainable.*** Ride a horse. Encourage horse transportation. They don't spew greenhouse gases and you can ride them drunk. Entrepreneurs can collect their manure and generate emissions-free electricity.
Sixth, put more money into the military. National defence should be the only job of the federal government. Just a quick five-year plan or two to transition us to this green vision I've outlined here, and then we're good to go.
Sound crazy? Schizophrenic?
It's no more insane than Mark Carney's plan to continue centralizing power and wealth in the hands of a few.
At least I'm honest about my authoritarianism.
Mark Carney goes on an American comedy show and tells bald-faced lies.
*That's a joke.
**After all, you and I are the market. We want things like health care and will pay for it. What we don't need is an expensive administrative bureaucracy layered over these essential social services.
***Yes, Canada mines cobalt. But over half the world's supply (including the ones used in your electric car) comes from slave labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo.