“Prime Minister Goldman-Sachs”

Mark Carney – Canada’s 24th Prime Minister. Who is he exactly, and what does he stand for?

In the wake of Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, last January, ‘liberal’ commentators – even left-leaning activists — praised the former Governor of the Banks of Canada and England as a visionary — a welcome antidote to the sociopathic vandalism of the Trump regime; a realist who can help steer middle powers on a more rational, even just course; the best Canadians can hope for, in the age of Trump, defending Canadian sovereignty and the post-WWII legal order, now in shambles.

The “world order” has ruptured, Carney told the assembled crowd of political and economic bigwigs. Is the “rules-based international order” simply a “pleasant fiction” to be discarded, replaced by a “harsh reality where geopolitics — where the large, main power — is submitted to no limits, no constraints,” Carney asked, rhetorically?

Not quite, the investment banker told the room.

“Intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless,” Carney said. “They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the various states.”

“We aim to be both principled and pragmatic,” Carney continued — “principled in our commitment to fundamental values: sovereignty and territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter, and respect for human rights. Pragmatic in recognizing that progress is often incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner will share all of our values. We are engaging broadly, strategically, with open eyes. We actively take on the world as it is, not wait for a world we wish to be.”

Okay, what is the world all about, and how should it be, in Mark Carney’s mind? — a place where justice, human rights and international law prevail, or where the rich get richer, profiting from the cash cow economics of permanent war?

And who is Mark Carney? Progressively-minded, intellectual statesman, standing up for the UN Charter and underlying international law, or, in the words of one of Canada’s more provocative broadcasters, “Prime Minister Goldman-Sachs” — a blatant hypocrite, defending global ‘rules’ on the one hand (ensuring global economic trade, greasing supply chains, and boosting corporate profitability); on the other hand, supporting Israel-USA’s flagrantly unlawful war of aggression Iran, the kidnapping of foreign leaders, and the proliferation of oil pipelines that trash Earth’s climate system?

Yves Engler, another acerbic Canadian commentator, has Mark Carney pegged.

Engler, based in Montreal, is the author of thirteen books and countless articles about Canadian foreign policy and international affairs, through an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist lens. Among these: Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy (together with Owen Schalk); Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People’s History of the Canadian Military; House of Mirrors — Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy; Left, Right — Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada, and, A Propaganda System — How Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation.

The GPM spoke with Yves Engler about Mark Carney.

Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Watch our complete conversation here.