Mark Carney is the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and he is now cleared to be sworn in as the next Prime Minister of Canada. For the Western Standard's Nigel Hannaford reacts to the news.
00:00:00.000So, no surprise, Mark Carney is the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:00:24.300Having set the contest entry threshold at a lofty $350,000 and outspent the others fair and square, he is now cleared to be sworn in as the next Prime Minister of Canada.
00:00:38.060There are two things to be said. The first is to Mr Carney himself, and we'll say it just once.
00:00:42.960Mr Carney, congratulations from Western Canada.
00:00:46.020But enjoy the moment, for tomorrow we need to talk. Oil, gas, pipelines, and what lanes the government you now head may legitimately occupy.
00:00:55.580If you mean, as Liberal leader, to continue your predecessor's policy of putting Alberta out of business, it will be a tough discussion.
00:01:03.960The second thing we must say is to the string pullers in the Liberal Party.
00:01:07.920This was your chance to restore mainstream thinking to the Liberal Party, not necessarily to become Cog Conservatives or even Blue Liberals,
00:01:18.220but you could have pivoted to things that common-sense Canadians could have said yes to.
00:01:24.180Instead, you gave us four candidates who represented your old style of thinking.
00:01:29.520The choice was nothing more than who could best channel the departing Justin Trudeau, and you gave us Mark Carney to do that.
00:01:39.700Time enough to see whether Mr Carney is any more effective as a political campaigner than Michael Ignatiev, the public intellectual,
00:01:47.600you put up against Stephen Harper in 2011.