— Feature, Musings —07.03.2025 12:59 PM
“Bootlicker.” Here’s why Mark Carney should pay attention to Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Axworthy stirred.
The Manitoba Liberal MP looked around the paneled boardroom in 409-S, the office of the Leader of the Opposition, in Centre Block. “I think I am going to express outrage about this one,” he said to the room. Someone laughed.
It was long ago, 1992 or so. We were gathered for the daily meeting to determine what we – the Liberal Party Official Opposition – were going to ask about during Question Period. I can’t remember what Lloyd had decided to be outraged about. But I remember that he said that.
I was reminded of it again when Lloyd unloaded both rhetorical barrels on Mark Carney this week. The Prime Minister was “a boot-licker,” Lloyd had said, quote unquote. For capitulating to Donald Trump’s demand that Canada scrap the Digital Sales Tax, Lloyd suggested last week, Carney had revealed himself to be a craven coward.
Axworthy continued in his blog post: “A pattern is now set: Trump harrumphs, we comply. What else will we quietly surrender? Cultural industries? Environmental standards, agriculture security, Arctic sovereignty?”
Wow. Shots fired, as they say. So, the obvious question: was what Lloyd said genuine, or was it a bit of political performative theatre? Either way, it was something Mark Carney would be ill-advised to dismiss as the rantings of a Grit ghost.
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Carney’s popularity goes up with the over 55 crowd. ANKLES UP! ANKLES U………… ELBOWS UP! ELBOWS UP!
Axworthy was and remains a real Liberal.
Same holds true for Chretien, Martin, Manley, McLellan, MacLaren, Drury, Graham, Dion, Pettigrew, LaMarsh, Campagnolo, Winters, Kierans, Richardson, Gordon, and so many others.
This current lot … they’re not real Liberals.
They’re all fake.
Lloyd’s telling it like it is
Warren,
Axworthy is absolutely on point. God bless him!
Prime Minister WimpTM better not give away the store just to get a one-sided agreement by July 21st. Carney badly needs to look for his stones. Clearly, he has misplaced them…
Lets see what the final deal looks like first.
This is precisely why negotiating needs to be private.
If the final deal is f$%ked, obviously the DST goes back up.
Warren, if I am not mistaken, Jean Chretien was going to eliminate the dairy and poultry marketing boards. He lost his nerve and decided against it. It is unfortunate because marketing boards rip off consumers and provide no incentive for innovation.
Exactly. The more Carney can distance himself from the protectionist nonsense which unnecessarily riles up our trading partners (not just the U.S.), the better. Sorry, dairy and poultry folks – you’re going to need to figure out how actual economies operate. It’s what pretty much every other industry does (and what the grain farmers figured out easily, after the silly Canadian Wheat Board was removed).
Time to put on your big-boy and big-girl pants.
I realized how expensive Canadian milk, cheese and eggs are when I lived in Finland. It’s not considered a cheap country, but milk, cheese and eggs were considedably cheaper there. It’s clear to me that Canadians pay far too much for dairy and poultry, and the quality isn’t necessarily superior.
In 1995, Crowsnest Freight Rate was eliminated for grain farmers in western Canada. Farmers were compensated with a one-time payment. I have no objections to a similar arrangement for dairy and poultry farmers along with a notice period for the expiry of the marketing boards and related quotas.
While I will take our dairy and poultry six days a week and twice on Sundays compared to the barely edible, chemical-and-hormone-laden and devoid-of-taste garbage that is on offer in the US, we do pay far too much for it.
One thing the Americans did get right with their supply management regime is directing the surplus production to school lunch programs and low-income folks. Whereas ours literally goes down the drain or into the dumpster.
Gord,
Agreed. And none of our political geniuses at the federal and/or provincial level will lift a finger to fix that. What L-O-S-E-R-S.