Mark Carney was anointed as much as elected. Canadian politics had gathered currents that pushed Liberals to want a different kind of leader: a technocrat to steer away from Justin Trudeau and through troubled times.
The result was overwhelming. Mr. Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, was brushed aside brutally, into a second-place finish that amounted to 8 per cent of the vote. Mr. Carney won in a blow-out with 86 per cent.
The Liberals’ two-month leadership race was a quickie remodel, and the party was in a rush to tear down the Trudeau structures and put up something that looks like it can withstand the winds of Hurricane Donald Trump.
That’s what Mr. Carney talked about when he won.
He claimed to be the candidate of change by highlighting a promised to cancel two of Mr. Trudeau’s policies – the carbon levy and capital-gains tax increase – while Mr. Trudeau was sitting right in front of him. …