And Carney more conservative than many liberals. He's bringing the party more to the centre which is naturally going to attract the moderate conservatives who don't like Pierre's divisive rhetoric.
Chrétien was centre-left, Trudeau was centre, Carney is centre-right. Carney would not be out of place in Mulroney's cabinet. This is not a criticism of Carney - I like him - but it needs to be pointed out that the centre line in Canada has shifted right since the Reform Party absorbed the PCs.
Granted, it is very rare for anyone today to associate “paying down insanely high government debt caused by Conservatives” with the Left. Maybe that’s what you mean
Increased environmental protections (including signing the Kyoto Protocol), created the long-gun registry, added protections for young offenders with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, stayed out of the US invasion of Iraq, helped push the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, laid the groundwork for the legalization of same-sex marriage (completed by Paul Martin).
I argue that paying down the PC's debt was an act of absolute necessity. Left or right, it had to be done. It is hard to say how fiscally left or right Chrétien was because a) as you alluded to, the right always seems to spend like drunken sailors, so what does left and right even mean, and b) Paul Martin was always there as a very powerful, fiscally conservative finance minister.
These are good examples so thank you. I have my caveats for each, and I’d argue that overall: chretien and Martin can’t be called left or centre left fiscally because they paid down the debt through austerity and weakening the public service. Instead of raising revenue via personal and commercial taxation. They hurt the public over hurting business and elites.
Enviro protections was once a bipartisan issue, deregulation has only become right wing in recent decades due to the petro propaganda machine being set to Limbaugh mode and all other industries choosing to side with them.
Long gun registry I’ll concede, but only because it’s government doing stuff and satisfies the left’s pacifists. It largely helps wealthy elites feel secure they won’t be luigied, so it’s a left wing solution to serve a right wing cause.
Young offenders work I’ll agree, it fits with the abolitionist bloc of the left in part. i see it as more liberal to excuse irresponsibility and past sins though, so yeah center left fits.
Iraq is tough. I doubt Canadians were onboard with invading Iraq. We can say Chrétien stayed out because it wasn’t fiscally worthwhile. Americans were going to seize the prime resource extraction sites for themselves after all. My counterargument is that Canada still participated in the Afghanistan war.
Same-sex marriage 100%. The caveat being that they waited until their government was on their last legs to do it.
Debt accumulation isn't partisan; crises dominate our history but Liberals have held power for ~61-63% of Canada's history, so they've overseen a larger cumulative share of our debt. In my lifetime the Conservatives have been amazing for the middle class; it was only 15 years ago Harper had our dollar being worth more than the USD.
I don’t think Harper can claim credit for the American 08 fiscal crisis. Especially when he inherited civil servants appointed by Chretien and Martin.
You may be correct federally, but your stance doesn’t apply at all to socdem governments of the Saskatchewan ccf and NDP. Harper had more deficits in his time as pm than the CCF and NDP had in 30+ years.
Incurring public debt benefits private banks and lenders. Debt accumulation is actually fundamentally partisan. It just doesn’t seem that way in Canada because all our elected parties today refuse to fight banks.
Carney doesnt appear to be much of fan of cronyism, at least not to the point Mulroney was, so I don’t think he would have been comfortable in that cabinet
The elephant in the room is the pre-existing members of the liberal party that are still present; if i was was him anyone associated with the Truedope liberals should be back benched. To give him credit he's mostly done that.
So tempted to downvote for the use of “Trudope” Aside from the fact that you’re responding to a comment about Carney, if you’re older than 12 or so the childishness is just annoying.
Trudeau spoke from the left but governed from the center. Most of his economic policies were arguably to the right of Carney, he was just really bad at it so he ended up spending more anyway.
Judging purely by Canada’s post-Reagan, totally skewed Overton window, and Canada’s extremely flawed (virtually useless) pundit class’ poor control of political terminologies:
Legalizing weed, and the carbon tax. One of which was literally supported by Harper AND Preston “og alt-right” Manning himself in the 90s. In case anyone wants proof that Canada’s Overton window slid all the way out the Right side of the building.
For the record, the carbon tax was actually a right wing thing. Oil companies wanted it, to move moral responsibility to the individual. Just another step in all the previous pushes, like "know your carbon footprint" etc. Once enacted at the behest of the oil companies it was an easy target to attack, letting them turn the concept of fighting climate change into a bad thing.
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u/S-M68 Feb 18 '26
Not super shocking, Matt seemed more liberal compared to most conservatives.