Long before he entered politics, Mark Carney was a full-throated supporter of social engineering via progressive policy. His platform, released Monday, has confirmed that his government will be no different in that regard than that of Justin Trudeau.
Carney’s plan shallowly pushes diversity both in form and in substance. Form-wise, his platform alleges itself to have been “reviewed through an equity lens using a GBA+ analysis,” meaning that for each commitment has been mulled over extensively by the privilege police.
In government, this has become standard operating procedure for even the most minute regulatory changes and budget lines under Trudeau. Thorough identity analyses have been a feature of: 2024 changes to
(analysts concluded that most hunters were white and male), the 2023
(analysts attempted to study the race and gender of travelling piano players); the 2024
on the disclosure of fragrance ingredients; the 2023 federal tampons-in-the-workplace
(which covered “non-binary individuals, transgender men and intersex people”); and much more.
The same exercise is even
to the entire Canadian budget, because the Liberals made this the law in 2018. Carney’s priorities are no different: “We will continue to update the GBA+ tool to ensure it reflects the identities and values of all Canadians, including diversity as a core value.”
In substance, the Carney platform is just as friendly to the traditions pioneered by Trudeau. Support is thrown behind the various identity-based programs that have taken root in the past few years. Most notable is his
to keep in place a
Trudeau-era grant to employers of apprentices
— a program that pays double when the apprentice ticks a diversity box. The program thus penalizes employers for hiring white, straight — non-diverse — males, because their corresponding grants of $5,000 are only half as lucrative. These are unfair on their face, explicitly valuing some apprentices less due to characteristics they can’t control.
To appeal to niches of voters, Carney’s also set aside various funding packets, committing to make permanent various programs to give cash to
(
, so far) and
as “women’s and equality-seeking organizations” ($100 million, so far) and
. These are the latest in a long line of breadcrumbs to keep interest groups following in line, which the federal government has spent the last decade laying out.
Most concerning of all, however, aren’t the specific lines of new DEI-related spending in the Carney platform. What matters more is the general commitment to the ideology that the Liberal leader has made in writing, preparing to submit his prospective government to the very same unproductive, often toxic, constraints that plagued the Trudeau Liberals.
Two platform points of note are these: one, Carney promises a country “where everyone has a fair shot, feels a sense of belonging, and contributes to our shared future by reshaping systems to better reflect and support all Canadians and make sure that no matter your heritage or identity you can fully participate in Canada.” Two, he commits to “confront systemic barriers” and “create opportunities for Indigenous Peoples, Black Canadians, and racialized communities, ensuring equal treatment and access in all aspects of Canadian society.”
Carney is correct in asserting that every Canadian should be treated equally — that’s just an essential element of human dignity. But his vague platform points about “full participation” and “systemic barriers” echo the language of the
, which aims to favour minority groups over others in all aspects of the government’s role. He seems to buy into the social panic that animated the 2020 BLM crisis, in particular, the idea that any statistical disparity that doesn’t favour a minority group is evidence of sinister systemic forces working to keep them down.
This will make him no better than Trudeau, whose departments and agencies mechanically
accordingly, whose judges are appointed with identity as a
, and whose research funding apparatuses have
in politics. The force is inescapable because in 2021, the clerk of the Privy Council — Trudeau’s most senior civil servant —
directions across the federal government to pursue
(and penalties for failing to meet targets), provide
and overall, orchestrate a whole-of-government paradigm shift. I would expect these shallow, degrading instructions to be repealed under Conservative leadership, but Carney? There’s no way.
In the past, Carney has embraced the same principles that Trudeau did as prime minister: as Britain’s central bank governor, he touted the power of DEI as far back as 2017, referencing in
the same tired cliches that government hiring should aim to demographically reflect its country, and that greater surface-level diversity decreases groupthink. He beat Canada in doing so, as our own central bank didn’t begin kissing the DEI ring
.
Later, when he entered the private sector, Carney became an environmental, social and governance (ESG) fund manager in the Brookfield universe, where once again, his priorities strayed into using power to achieve preferred social outcomes.
It’s clear from Carney’s platform that he promises to take that very same approach to governing Canada. If you’re expecting a rational technocrat, prepare to be disappointed if he wins.
National Post
