Thank you very much.
Just to make sure we're all keeping relevant, Mr. Carney has been giving some speeches. In fact, when one speech was recently reported, the headline was, “Mark Carney says federal budget not focused enough on growth”.
An article from the fall, from the CBC of all places, had the headline, “Former Bank of Canada governor Carney questions carbon price break on home heating oil”. Mr. Carney said he would do something different. I would like to know, as I'm sure many Canadians would, what that something different is. Those members of the Liberal caucus who have already pledged their support to a leadership contestant in an upcoming leadership race, to be determined, should also want Mr. Carney to face a reasonable amount of scrutiny.
I'll remind the committee that it was a member of this committee who retweeted his speech from just a few weeks ago when he talked about the budget and lack of growth.
I want to do a bit of time travel here. I believe this was in 2021. Mr. Mark Carney was on a famous podcast, The Herle Burly. I have a transcript of that podcast, which our wonderful translators have. We should examine what Mr. Mark Carney had to say about a number of issues. We'll begin.
David Herle said, “Greetings, Herle Burly-ites. We're going to get right to it. It's a two-part pod today, and a very exciting two-part pod it is. First up is Mark Carney. Yep, that Mark Carney. The former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, Mark Carney. The Mark Carney who recently spoke at the Liberal convention.”
Mr. Mark Carney has also spoken at Liberal Party conventions—very interesting. I'll go back to the transcript.
He continued, “But I have to ask, how much do you really know about this man? Today we're going to attempt to crack open the Carney. We'll take a deeper dive into his story. Why a young, successful master of the universe guy just quits to become a bureaucrat in the Department of Finance. We'll talk about the thesis of his new book, Value(s): Building a Better World for All, and we're going to try to demystify the link between climate action and finance policy, what that means for Canada, and maybe we'll talk a little bit of budget. Part two of the pod is NSFW, not safe for work. Let's face it: it may not even be safe for you to listen alone on your goddamned AirPods.”
That's just me repeating. I'm not trying to use unparliamentary language, but I'll be more careful, Mr. Chair.
He said, “It's our political panel with Jenni 'accept no [BS]' Byrne and Scott 'I have no need of fancy grooming products' Reid. We'll talk about the continuing Ford fallout in Ontario: Sick Leave? What Sick Leave? The Vance sexual misconduct story—how compelling is this politically? Does it even matter? Trudeau's got his guns out in his vaccine photo op, but he's been tardy on travel bans. We'll chat about that. Plus stick around for our 'HEY YOUs!' this week.
“Mark Carney, I want to welcome you to The Herle Burly. I'm so happy to have you here. I've known you well for about.... I met you 20 years ago. I've known you well for about 10 years, but you've never had enough time on your hands or been unemployed [long] enough to come on this show...so thank you for [coming].”
Mark Carney said, “This is a new low, David. It's a new low.”
David Herle said, “You never thought.... You never thought...oh my God. How are you?”
Mark Carney answered, “I'm all right. I'm good. I'm happy to be here. Good to see you. I've listened to you, but I haven't seen you for a long time, so it's good to see you. You're looking well.”
David Herle said, “Blurry, if well.... Blurry is actually my best look. Yeah, fuzzy. It's an effect I use on the camera.”
There's a little bit of a pause, and then “yeah”.
David Herle asked, “What are you doing for fun? You're in Ottawa. What are you doing for fun?”
Mark Carney said, “Yeah. The city that doesn't wake up”. I'll take a time out. This is a very true story. This is the city that fun forgot. Ottawa is the only city in the entire country that has to hire a night manager to make the city more fun.
I'll go back to the transcript.
Mark Carney said, “What am I doing for fun? I mean, it's tough at the best of times. It's difficult. There's not a lot. You know, we've got.... Two of our kids are here, so we have fun, you know, the sort of family unit. Mealtimes are fun, something to look forward to, you know, to be honest. Look, I'm in a book club. I mean, it's good, man. It's good. We're doing the second loop through, you know, Schitt's Creek and watching a bit of the Oilers”.
I'll pause. I'm also watching the Oilers this year—that's interesting—a perennial Stanley Cup favourite.
I'll go back to the transcript.
He continued, “[We're] on the fringes of.... Like many of us...I'm sleeping at the office sort of thing, so I spend a lot of time staring into this device for various work stuff. There's a bit of fun, but, yeah, I'm ready to be released when we're released.”
I'll pause. He's “ready to be released” when it's time. Maybe now is that time, Mr. Chair.
David Herle said, “I'm sure. Hey, listen. We have a lot of Ontario listeners to this podcast. Would you tell them who, in reality, is the best hockey team in Canada right now?”
Mark Carney answered, “The Edmonton Oilers. I was being interviewed the other day. It was American. It was Bloomberg, I think. It was American. Yeah, and he said, 'You know, this is the year the Leafs are going to win the cup.' And he went on and on, and I was like, what are you talking about? The Oilers are going to win—