Mark Carney is Canada’s Prime Minister — for now, at least.
After stepping in as the newly appointed leader of the Liberal Party and assuming office in mid-March, Carney wasted no time calling a snap federal election, set for April 28. Now, Canadians have just a few weeks to decide if he should stick around.
According to Leger’s latest federal voting survey, 44% of Canadians say they’d vote Liberal if the election were held today, while 38% are backing Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. Meanwhile, more than one in three Canadians (36%) believe Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, is running the best campaign so far.
But stats and polls only tell part of the story — what do everyday Canadians think about Carney running the country?
We recently took the question to Facebook, and asked our readers, “What do you think about Mark Carney?”
Like anything political, responses differed from folks who strongly support or oppose Carney, and many who find themselves on the fence.
Here are some of the most popular replies from the post.
Positives
Ann Davidson
“Carney is a breath of fresh air. He is measured, knowledgeable and deeply invested in getting our country on track. And he is firm. He will work to shape his team differently where it is needed.”
Cameron B Sutcliffe
“The Leader we need in these times”
Brian Chownyk
“62 years old and I’ll be voting liberal for the first time in my life.”
Michele Therese
“I love that he’s not a politician, says what needs to be said, refuses to speak with Trump until he shows us some respect, and is doing more than thinking up new slogans!”
Duanne Ibarra
“What I think about PM Mark Carney:We are very fortunate that we have him. The choice couldn’t be any clearer on the next election. His intelligence, experience, crisis management and the list goes on and on. He has only been PM for around a week and we all see how diligent and productive he is. We’re counting on him as we deal with all the instability and uncertainty.”
Teresa Mattson
“Very impressed with him. I’m usually NDP but Carney is right guy for this time.”
Bryan O’Grady
“He’s the smartest man in the room. Any room. For the most part I consider myself a conservative – always have (though I haven’t always voted that way). I’ll vote for Carney this time.”
Lori Parniak
“Intelligent, worldly, admired by other (normal) countries, sense of humour, human touch…..what’s not to love! He has my vote!”
Ken Gallipeau
“I would rather have an economist learning to be a politician than a politician learning to be an economist!”
Aziza NovruzovaI
“[I] like his policies so far. He is working on eliminating interprovincial trade barriers, he canceled capital gains tax increase, he is also strengthening more reliable international alliances.”
Negatives
Sandip Mehan
“Carney = Garbage.”
Tareq Ahsan
“Same as Trudeau. Liberals need to go! Last 10 years we are tired of them!”
Stephen HaleI
“I think he’s got the right stuff on paper, but he’s surrounded himself with the same team Trudeau had that really wrecked our economy, opening us up to Trump’s trade war in a way we weren’t under Harper (not that I liked him much either).”
Charlene Wood
“Mark Carney will be the nail in the coffin for Canada. I’m dumbfounded by the idiots that think the Liberal party can fix what the Liberal party broke. Carney has been advising Trudeau for years and look where that’s gotten us.”
Sharon Emslie
“The idea of him being a Godfather to Chrystia Freeland’s son bugs the heck out of me… too much inner love already… can’t be trusted.”
Sandi Hollingshead
“He did a horrible job when he was Governor of Bank of England. Interest rates were going up and down with no reasoning… Not a very impressive report card I’d say.”
Chris Clattenburg
“Don’t trust him… Everyone calls Pierre a career politician. A career banker and advisor to the guy who had to resign because he was so disliked is worse to me.”
Zara Arakelyan
“I guess Canada wants to have Russia like state and government – one party for 25 years … He hasn’t even lived in Canada for 11 years. How would he know what’s best for Canadians?”
Brad Munro
“He was not elected. He was selected. He has none of his own ideas. He snaps on and refuses to answer reporters. He should not be in the position he has. The Liberal leadership race was heavily flawed.”
As of April 2, Narcity Canada’s Facebook post has a little over 8,400 replies. You can explore the entire thread here.
For more information on how to vote on April 28, you can visit elections.ca.
