Has Mark Carney lost his mind?
Mark Carney has only been Canada's prime minister since March 14. Yet in that short period of time, he has made an unusually high number of blunders.
Carney is politically inexperienced. He acted arrogantly and was curt with several reporters. He is reported to have a 'volcanic' temper. He has often appeared distant and impersonal on the campaign trail. He's been involved in awkward photo-ops. He backed out of a French-language debate.
We can now add something else. Carney has shown incredibly poor judgement by defending a candidate who appeared to support the collection of a financial bounty placed on the head of a political rival by a foreign power. Extraordinary, but true.
Paul Chiang, a Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the minister of diversity and inclusion, suggested that Canadians collect the $183,000 (CDN) bounty the Hong Kong police have placed on Conservative candidate Joe Tay's head. (Chiang and Tay are running in different ridings.) This is reported to have happened during a January news conference with Chinese-language media that wasn't widely covered elsewhere.
According to the Ming Pao newspaper, Chiang said it would be a 'great controversy' if Tay was elected with this foreign criminal charge looming over him. He then made this reprehensible statement: 'If you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward.' The audience reportedly laughed. Was he really joking?
To make matters worse, Chiang is a retired 28-year police veteran. If anyone should know better than to make this type of disgusting and dangerous remark, it's a former police officer.
Chiang claimed he spoke with Tay on Monday to 'personally apologise'. He called it a 'terrible lapse of judgement' and said 'it will never happen again.' He also made a public apology on X, saying that the comments he made were 'deplorable'.
But Tay was having none of this. Chiang had 'made an unsolicited attempt to contact me' the previous evening, he wrote on March 31, 'and has posted on social media that he offered me an apology.' Tay stated, 'I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient.'
Moreover, he pointed out that 'suggesting that people collect a bounty from the Chinese Communist Party to deliver a political opponent to the Chinese consulate is disgusting and must never be condoned'. He said that Carney should 'fire' Chiang as a candidate.
Carney will be doing nothing of the sort, it seems.
Although the PM acknowledged he was 'deeply offended' by Chiang's comments, he suggested this episode could serve as a 'teachable moment'. He also said, 'He's made his apology. He's made it to the public, he's made it to the individual concerned, he's made it directly to me, and he's going to continue with his candidacy. He has my confidence.'
Has Carney lost his mind? Does he crave political power to the point that he can't do the right thing and remove a candidate who has behaved reprehensibly? What could possibly justify keeping him as a Liberal candidate for the forthcoming election?
There's nothing teachable here. It's unforgivable.
Moreover, how will Carney stand up for Canada's safety, security and independence with US president Donald Trump when he can't even take on Communist China and fire a Liberal candidate who effectively supported a CCP-endorsed bounty?
This controversy comes in the context of recent accusations that Carney secured a more than $250 million (CDN) loan for his former company, Brookfield Asset Management, from the Bank of China last November. 'How do we know he's not going to act against our interests in favour of his financial interest?,' Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre asked.
Carney has rejected accusations that he is indebted to China. But the questions don't seem to be going away.
Michael Taube, a columnist for the National Post, Troy Media and Loonie Politics, was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
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