LTE: Mark Carney and the European Pivot: A Political Parallel to Gilles Duceppe?

I’m well to Carney’s left.

There is a strong appetite in Canada for a pivot towards Europe. There is a strong appetite in the Commonwealth and in Central and Western Europe to support Canada’s sovereignty in the face of ongoing political and economic threats and to deepen the various bilateral and multilateral relationship.

In this context, Carney’s experience in the UK and, by extension, in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris is an incredible electoral and geopolitical asset of which Poilievre (perish the thought), Singh, and Blanchet are entirely devoid.

Carney’s best attribute, in other words, is that he’s almost singularly positioned to pivot the Liberal Party towards Europe in a time that Canada direly needs to do so.

Perhaps the most salient parallel in our recent political history is the way that labour organiser Gilles Duceppe’s addition to the sovereigntist mix in his seminal 1990 Laurier by-election victory was able to pivot the Bloc Québécois towards organised labour and social movements, something that was lacking with Lucien Bouchard and his entourage.

Duceppe’s presence in the Bloc and the electoral coalition that came with it is ultimately why the party was able to thrive beyond Bouchard’s leadership tenure and become a fixture in Canadian politics.

Ultimately, I argue that Europe will do for Carney what organised labour was able to do for Duceppe.

And just as Duceppe ran into Jack Layton and his NDP’s much deeper non-sovereigntist support, I would not be surprised if Carney or his successor are ultimately done in by their own political success rather than by any sort of failure.

Josh Frappier
Cornwall