On verge of a majority, Carney offers reassurance and a measure of caution

At a second of jubilation and on the eve of potentially even out greater triumph, ground government minister Mark Carney offered a brief note of caution.

"Just over a year ago, in the midst of a blizzard ... We started down the road to make the best country in the world even better," he recalled, speaking perhaps both literally and metaphorically.

But, he warned Liberals gathered in Montreal for the party's biennial convention, they "should be under no illusions" because "the path we've chosen is hard."

"There will be head winds, black ice, steep climbs along the way. We'll have to be pragmatic and determined to keep moving forward," he said. "But this is the journey that we must make. Because we are meeting in the middle of a transformation that will define our country for generations."

This heralding drew hesitant applause.

There was more enthusiasm for many of the things Carney said after that. And on Monday the Liberals may have even more to cheer if they gain the seats necessary to secure a majority, ensuring they will have three years ahead of them before another election.

That would be a lot of time to do a lot of things. But there are a lot of things to do — and there were reminders on Saturday of how challenging the next three years could be.

The first challenge — the great challenge — is Canada's relationship with the United States and everything that entails.

But within Carney's remarks there was also a strong theme of national unity — the threats to which are not only external. By year's end Carney may face both a referendum in Alberta and a separatist government in Quebec.

Carney read aloud from a note he'd received a year ago from an old friend who advised him that, "right now, everyone sees the main threat as the Trump tariffs. But the far greater challenge will be, as it has always been, to foster unity and a sense of the common good.”

The prime minister celebrated Canada as a nation "forged through accommodation not assimilation" and "partnership not domination."

Carney devoted another portion of his speech to another potential source of anxiety: artificial intelligence. A transformation brought on by AI was inevitable, Carney said, but in Canada the technology would be "governed by Canadian values and "accountable to Canadians."

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There was, as one might expect, much said about what the government has done and is doing — its response to the blizzard Canada is now braced against. About efforts to accelerate the construction of 14 "nation-building" infrastructure projects. About increases in defence spending and a 13 per cent increase in recruitment. About 20 new trade and investment agreements.

But he did not — could not? — boast about how many affordable homes his government has built. Such things take time, of course. But if Carney is to have more time now, there will be that much more reason to expect that he will have things — big, physical things — to point to when Canadians next go to the polls.

Carney has shied away from using the word "sacrifices" since floating the idea last fall, but on Saturday he did talk about "tough" decisions to reduce government spending. And he did say that Canadians were being called to "serve." 

"Not against something. For something," he said. "For each other."

While he talked about being pragmatic, he also talked positively about taking risks — a notion that necessarily implies periodic failure. He also emphasized the need to move fast.

In managing all of the above, Carney may soon be able to count on a majority in the House of Commons — and he boasted on Saturday that the Liberal caucus now includes MPs who ran last year under different banners.

But a substantial portion of Carney's speech seemed aimed at reassuring Liberal partisans that he shared their values.

Starting with Wilfrid Laurier (but oddly omitting Mackenzie King), Carney saluted a lineage of Liberal prime ministers, celebrating some of their defining accomplishments. His immediate predecessor, Justin Trudeau, received particular praise. 

Carney spoke of building a strong national economy — his defining priority — as a "means to a just society" — Pierre Trudeau's defining idea. A just society, he said, was anchored in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it meant Canada was a place where "women always have the right to choose," "you can love who you want to love" and "everyone can be their entire selves."

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These lines were loudly applauded. For good measure, he later spoke of supporting the vulnerable, working in partnership with Indigenous peoples, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment.

Some of this might have been pro forma for a Liberal convention. But three days removed from Carney's welcoming of Marilyn Gladu to the Liberal fold, the prime minister may have needed to reassure Liberals that his party was still theirs.

Based on the standings in the polls and the standings in the House, it would seem Carney has provided significant reassurance to a significant number of Canadians in his first year as prime minister.

But there will be much more need for reassurance in the years ahead.

Senior writer

Aaron Wherry has covered Parliament Hill since 2007 and has written for Maclean's, the National Post and the Globe and Mail. He is the author of Promise & Peril, a book about Justin Trudeau's years in power.

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