The liberal leadership candidate and former governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, said on Sunday that former Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked him to join his cabinet as Minister of Finance in 2012.
Carney, who sat down for an interview in Rosemary Barton LiveHe was answering a question about why he was entering the political fray now, after his name has been thrown into liberal circles for years.
“They have offered me positions in the past,” Carney told host Rosemary Barton. “For example, Prime Minister Harper asked me if it would be his finance minister in 2012.”
The former central banker said that “it was not appropriate” for him to proceed with the offer because he did not feel that it would be right to “go directly to be governor in elective politics.”
Carney worked as Governor of the Bank of Canada from February 2008 to June 2013. At that time, he served under former Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who was in the Harper cabinet when this alleged job offer occurred.
The main political correspondent, Rosemary Barton, speaks with the liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney in his first Canadian interview to discuss his vision for Canada if he is chosen.
The comments of the former central banker on Sunday are the first time he speaks publicly about a job offer of former Prime Minister Harper.
Harper’s former communications director, Dimitri Sudas, said in a statement to CBC News that “Mark Carney does not tell the whole story, and Prime Minister Harper certainly does not support Mr. Carney in any way.”
CBC News has communicated with Harper to comment through its consulting firm, Harper & Associates.
Carney’s comments are presented after the round trip exchanges on social networks between liberals and conservatives about how much credit should be able to successfully direct Canada’s response to the 2008 global finance crisis.
On Wednesday, the wife of the conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Anaida Poilievre, Criticized Carney on social networks And he said that the former central banker was “claiming the legacy of a man who has passed”, referring to Flaherty, who died in 2014.
“I worked under the government of Harper and I saw first -hand the exceptional leadership of Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Harper in the Directorate of Canada through one of the most challenging economic periods in our history,” said Poilievre. “What is happening at this time is not just misleading, it is terrible.”
Chisholm Pothier, who worked as the Flaherty Cabinet Deputy Director and Communications Director, came to Carney defense in his Own publication on social networks.
“Oh please. I was there and Carney played an important role,” Pothier said. “Flaherty and Harper provided the political leadership that was key, but Carney was on deck with intelligent monetary information.”
“Trying to erase that for partisan reasons is, well, beyond the shameful, to coincide with its hyperbole,” Pothier published in response to Anaida Poilievre.
Oh please. I was there and Carney played an important role. Flaherty and Harper provided the political leadership that was key, but Carney was on deck with intelligent monetary information and monetary policy.
Trying to erase that for partisan reasons is, well, beyond the shameful, to coincide with its hyperbole https://t.co/ykhrzkfuvk
In mid -January, Liberal Deputy Manander Sidhu Published a video on social networks promoting Carney’s work during the 2008 crisis. The video presented a Flaherty clip that said: “Mark has been an excellent governor at the Bank of Canada for more than five years.”
Two days after Sidhu posted the video, Sudas responded And he said that two people led Canada through the financial crisis of 2008, Flaherty and Harper, and added that “the bureaucrats did not lead the answer; they followed the direction of the elected government.”
Carney and liberals
Since 2012, the Liberal Party has tried to take Carney to the political redile, they He even tried to persuade him To give up his work as governor of the Bank of Canada to run in the leadership career that finally crowned Justin Trudeau.
At that time, social media sites that promote a movement of “fashion draft” appeared on Facebook and Twitter, although Carney never ended up doing leadership.
The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, and the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, discuss the appointment of Carney at the Bank of England.
Carney’s comments on Sunday that he felt inappropriate to move from his publication in the Central Bank to politics also date back to 2012, but in the context of weighing a liberal leadership career, according to a Report from the world and mail.
In the end, Carney became governor of the Bank of England. To the press conference When it was announced that he would assume the role, Carney laughed at the idea that the Canada Bank would leave to seek liberal leadership.
