Carney's Neverending Honeymoon

The Gordie Howe International Bridge has been a sticking point in politics lately. Like most federal political issues, this one centres around the US demanding a new deal to tip benefit in their favour. In early July, Canada and the US announced that this deal was reached, but Carney is being incredibly cagey about the details.

Originally, the cost of the bridge, $6.4 billion, was paid for by Canada. These costs were to be paid by tolls. Once that was reached, revenues from the bridge would then be split with Michigan. Carney has said both that "net profits" would be split between Canada and the US, then that "net revenues" would be split after operational costs. Meanwhile, the Trump administration said revenue splitting would happen before Canada was repaid for its construction.

Earlier this week, the government posted the agreement online. In short, as Emma Loop explains in a CBC News article:

In other words, Canada will still start paying down its debt immediately with whatever net revenues it gets, but those revenues will be smaller than before. And whenever the debt is paid off, the revenue will still get split with Michigan.

The new deal also gives the U.S. government control over some changes to toll rates — something it didn't have before.

Sounds like a worse deal, in every respect. Not only that, but Carney's public statements on the bridge deal contradicted what's in the text. Alongside this, considering the 50 per cent tariff announcement from Trump the next day, it seems as though Carney is not the deal maker he pretends to be. Canadian officials cancelled the bridge's ribbon-cutting ceremony set to take place on the 24th in response to the tariffs. Masterful gambit.

Polls conducted and released before this debacle show that the Liberal Party still holds a trusted and solid lead. As of July 17, 338 Canada has collected polls from Abacus Data, Nanos Research and Liaison strategies that put the Liberals between 41 and 44 per cent support over the past month. Leads over the Conservatives range from +6 to +12.

Though much ink has been spilled and many screeds screeched about the Gordie Howe Bridge deal, there's likely very little negative results for the Liberals in the electorate. It's a dull, dreary financial story about the finer points of fiscal policy; Not exactly sexy areas of coverage. But therein lies the issue. Coverage of Carney's policy has not been sufficient.

As Jeremy Appel wrote in The Orchard, there comes a time, when looking at a federal leader's behaviour,that you need to recognize the pattern. Aligned with Trump and the US, Carney axed the Digital Services Tax, invested massively in our military and sent representatives to the US fascist summit on supposed left-wing extremists.

Carney's environmental policy is an acute example of the destructive nature of his politics. Over 1,000 wildfires are burning in Canada, sending smoke across the continent. Despite this being the nominal, hollow justification for the new 50% tariffs, Carney had previously cut experts at agencies that monitor and communicate wildfire threats. Then, simultaneously, the Prime Minister announces on his YouTube channel that his government will increase carbon emissions, worsening climate change. All to build a pipeline that most private companies have no interest in at grave environmental cost and taxpayer's expense.

Carney Knows Privatization Worsens Conditions, That’s the Point

It has been over 50 years since the birth of neoliberalism, the political and economic outlook that shifts the role of government into facilitating the growth of the private market. Since its bloody implementation in Chile under the fascist Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, the ideology has dominated the world. It soon

The CatchScott Martin

As I've argued before on The Catch, Carney is an ideological conservative. Considering how most Canadians voted for the Liberal party and not the Conservatives, why is this not harming him at the polls? The answer cannot be simply provided. There are, no doubt, countless factors that affect vote intention. But there is certainly a role that media coverage has played. Canada's media has been all in favour of the Carney's shameless militarization. Meanwhile, most controversies considering the environment simply ignore the environment angle. In an interview published in The Narwhal, assistant political science professor at McGill University Amy Janzwood said of pipeline reporting, "All the media coverage I saw has been stenography, basically."

In fact, Carney's status that put him on the road to Prime Minister has been the result of glowing media coverage over the course of years, as Emma Paling has reported in The Maple.

Until there's concrete proof of Carney's willingness to decimate the Canadian environment, people and state for private gain, it seems little will change in polling. A poor deal with the US in regards to the Gordie Howe International Bridge is merely an appetizer. Once CUSMA negotiations show how little Carney can actually win for the average resident in this country, the illusion will shatter. The problem is, Carney has a free hand to justify and posture up until that moment. After the 50% tariffs were announced, Carney announced to the press that they will "intensify" trade negotiations. Despite the fact that this literally means nothing, it was put in the headline of articles from The Globe and Mail, CTV News, CBC News, Reuters, Associated Press and countless other publications.

This, alongside the increasingly asinine slapfights going on in the Conservative Party, ensure that Carney will likely see favourability for a long time.