Carney Says He Has A 'Very Clear Mandate,' Declines To Say Clear To Whom
Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to mounting criticism this week by explaining that he holds a "very clear mandate" to push through major economic changes, a phrase he delivered with the calm of a man who has read the balance sheet and does not intend to circulate it.
Pressed on which specific changes the mandate covered, Carney said the mandate was clear. Pressed on whether voters had been told about them in April, Carney said the mandate was very clear. Reporters eventually established that the mandate's clarity operates like the clarity of a lake: you can see straight to the bottom, and the bottom is farther away than it looks.
The defence is a familiar Canadian manoeuvre. Every prime minister since Confederation has discovered a mandate in the election results the way people discover a twenty in a winter coat, delighted and slightly suspicious about its origins. What distinguishes Carney is the tone. Chrétien claimed mandates like a guy winning an argument at a curling rink. Carney claims them like a central banker announcing that the committee has considered your feelings and voted.
The honest reading is that he probably does have one. Canadians elected a man whose entire pitch was that he would do uncomfortable arithmetic in public, then expressed shock when the arithmetic turned out to be uncomfortable and public. That is not a broken promise. That is a promise kept at an inconvenient volume.
Aides confirm the mandate is written down, reviewed quarterly, and stored somewhere secure. Asked whether the public could see it, one official said the mandate was best understood as a feeling, and then, catching himself, said it was a very clear feeling.