LILLEY: Carney seemingly caught in easy lie about moving HQ to NYC

One of the last major moves Mark Carney made in the private sector was to ensure his company moved its head office from Toronto to New York City. When asked about it on Tuesday night after the Liberal leadership debate, Carney straight-up lied and or he had a horrendous memory lapse when he said he wasn’t involved.

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It’s an odd choice for Carney given that he was Chair of the Board for Brookfield Asset Management, a publicly traded company, and there is plenty of evidence of the truth.

“Did you approve of that decision, and what does this say about your commitment to growing Canada’s economy and betting on Canada as for now?” Carney was asked by a reporter.

The soon-to-be prime minister’s response was to state that he left his position at Brookfield on Jan. 15, 2025, when he joined the leadership race and the decision was made after that.

“The decision, the formal decision of the board, happened after I ceased to be on the board,” Carney said.

An aide to Carney said the former central banker’s comments on Tuesday night were actually referring to the formal vote by Brookfield shareholders, which took place on Jan. 27, shortly after he resigned from all of his corporate roles to enter politics.

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He had to know this question was coming, he should have been prepared.

Brookfield’s board voted unanimously to move their head office from Toronto to New York on Oct. 31, 2024, a fact that was widely reported in the media on November 1, 2024. On Dec. 1, 2024, Carney signed a letter urging shareholders to endorse the decision to move the headquarters to the United States.

“Accordingly, the Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote FOR the Arrangement Resolution at the meeting,” Carney wrote.

That had the Conservatives jumping on Carney, saying he can’t be trusted and that he lied.

“We can’t trust what Mark Carney says, and we now know that he will put profits for himself and for well connected insiders on Bay Street and now on Wall Street ahead of Canadians. It’s crystal clear If Mark Carney wins, Canada loses,” Conservative MP Michael Barrett said Wednesday.

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It’s a valid point.

The Conservatives have been demanding that Carney begin adhering to the ethics disclosure rules on his investments, the same rules all members of Parliament are required to follow. He has so far refused to disclose any investments saying the rules don’t apply to him, but he did make the point during Tuesday’s debate to say that he had filled out the paperwork to get his security clearance while saying Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had not.

It’s a fun talking point for the Liberals to claim Poilievre can’t get his security clearance while ignoring that he clearly had one as a cabinet minister.

As for Carney and the ethics rules, one of the boards he resigned from to enter politics is Stripe, the American payments processing firm that is expected to undergo an initial public offering on the stock exchange. This is a firm that is currently fighting the Canadian government on calls to reduce service fees charged to small businesses on credit card transactions, it would be nice to know if Carney is going to benefit from that.

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But the bottom line is, Carney backed moving his company’s head office to the United States at a time when Donald Trump was already threatening Canada’s economy with 25% tariffs. He and Brookfield could have changed course after Trump launched his attack on Nov. 25.

They didn’t and the statement they released in response to the Conservatives pointing this out was beyond weak.

“Pierre Poilievre is scared of running against Mark Carney, and he’s desperate to misrepresent Mark’s serious experience in business because he has no economic experience whatsoever,” the statement read.

Scared of running against Mark Carney?

He pointed to Carney’s record and Carney’s team couldn’t even defend their leader. Carney appears to have an impressive resume for a bureaucrat, but going up against Donald Trump and his threats to Canada will take political skill.

That is something Mark Carney is clearly lacking.

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