Timing has worked wildly in Mark Carney’s favour before, but now he has a problem

opinion

Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Friday.

So much of Mark Carney’s short, hectic political career has been about time and timing. Yes, all any of us on this Earth have is time, but I promise we’re headed somewhere other than Obvioustown, so stay with me.

First, there was the unbelievably lucky timing of Mr. Carney’s moment to run for the Liberal leadership. It arrived just as Donald Trump was holding a knife to the throat of Canada’s economy, making a calm, crisis-handling economist look pretty appealing to voters.

Then there’s the fact we’re 10 years into a Liberal government and, in defiance of Canadian historical precedent and all the previous public rage toward his party, Mr. Carney is governing on almost miraculously borrowed time.

But time has not always been h