Prime Minister Mark Carney in Rome, on May 17. Lester Pearson and Mr. Carney share much in common, starting with the vital importance of Canada-U.S. relations.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
John Ibbitson is a media fellow at the Fraser Institute and a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Polic
When the Liberal Party is in trouble, it sometimes recruits a former public servant to save the day. Prime Minister Mark Carney is just the latest example.
Mackenzie King was deputy labour minister and then minister of labour, before leading the Liberal Party from opposition (where it had been for a decade) to forming government in 1921.
Lester Pearson served as a diplomat for many years before taking on the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1958, which had been defeated in the 1957 federal election after 22 years in power.
And as we all know, Mr. Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada and of England, later replacing Justin Trudeau at a time when the Liberal Party appeared certain of defeat, then taking it to victory on April 28.
“I feel it has much to do with the Liberal belief that it is the nation’s natural governing party,” James Rusk, a former correspondent for The Globe and Mail, pointed out to me. “Hence, it naturally turns when in trouble to those who know something about governing.”
Pearson and Mr. Carney share much in common, starting with the vital importance of Canada-U.S. relations.
Mr. Pearson got along famously with John F. Kennedy. And things started well with Lyndon Johnson. The prime minister agreed, at the president’s request, to send Canadian troops to Cyprus on a peacekeeping mission in 1964. The next year, the two governments signed the Auto Pact, which eventually led to today’s integrated North American automotive sector.
But Pearson discovered that the relationship with a president can swiftly change. Johnson was furious when the prime minister proposed in a 1965 speech that the Americans consider pausing their bombing campaign in Vietnam. “You pissed on my rug,” he reportedly yelled at Pearson when the two were at Camp David, grabbing him by the lapels.
Mr. Carney’s challenge as prime minister is to preserve the integrated automobile sector made possible by the Johnson-Pearson Auto Pact. President Donald Trump appears determined to relocate the Canadian and Mexican automotive sectors to the United States, while also proposing that Canada become an American state.
During a meeting at the White House earlier this month, relations seemed cordial, but Mr. Carney apparently made no progress in changing Mr. Trump’s mind. Tariffs and counter-tariffs are now part of the relationship.
Both Pearson and Mr. Carney achieved international fame before becoming Liberal leader. The former famously won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957, after helping broker an end to the 1956 Suez Crisis. The latter was governor of the Bank of England during Brexit, when Britain withdrew from the European Union.
Each displayed a great deal of flexibility, to use a charitable word. As opposition leader, Pearson opposed acquiring nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missiles from the United States, until it became clear that he could get elected by reversing that position, and so he did.
Mr. Carney is devoted to the cause of fighting global warming. Yet his first act as Prime Minister was to cancel the unpopular consumer carbon tax.
Each faced a divided country. Pearson grappled with a restless Quebec that was questioning what place, if any, it should have in Canada. Mr. Carney confronts deep levels of alienation among many people in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Pearson was opposed by a Western Conservative populist, John Diefenbaker. Mr. Carney is opposed by a Western Conservative populist, Pierre Poilievre.
The two men were quite different personally. Lester Pearson was good-humoured and lacking pretension. Mr. Carney was described in The Guardian in March as being charming and confident, but also possessing a “volcanic temper.” He appears quite sure – even full – of himself.
Pearson knew little about economics and cared even less, entrusting the nation’s finances to his friend Walter Gordon. As finance minister, Gordon presided over a botched attempt at greater economic independence from the United States. Mr. Carney, with his PhD in economics from Oxford (a university Pearson attended as well), is seeking to preserve the integrated Canada-U.S. economy that Gordon tried to weaken.
The federal government balanced its books during the Pearson years. The Carney government aims to continue the deficits established by the government of Justin Trudeau, whose father Pierre was recruited by Pearson for Cabinet, and engineered to be his successor.
Pearson is regarded as one of Canada’s most successful prime ministers, establishing public health care and pensions, while giving Canada the Maple Leaf flag. Mr. Carney’s legacy remains to be discovered.
He should think himself grateful were he one day to be compared favourably with that other public servant who became prime minister.