Ottawa

Mark Carney and the Liberals

The Globe details attempts to woo the bank governor.

Dozens of interviews over the past few weeks provide clearer evidence of the effort to convince the man who’s been called the “outstanding central banker of his generation” that he had a shot at winning the Prime Minister’s Office.

Speaking to The Globe this week, Mr. Carney refused to go into details about the conversations, or explain why he didn’t immediately shut down the campaign as a non-partisan public servant working under a Conservative government. He insisted, however, that he never actively sought the job or reached out to Liberals. “I never made an outgoing phone call,” Mr. Carney said. “I never encouraged anybody to do anything.”

There is also the matter of a stay at Scott Brison’s house.

Mr. Brison, one of the party members who’s been identified as expressing interest in seeing Mr. Carney helm the Liberal Party, declined to speak about hosting the central banker and his family – or what was discussed during the stayover. “Cheverie is our home and private space, not something I really discuss,” he wrote in an e-mailed response.

Mr. Carney declined to discuss his family’s stay with Mr. Brison, a politician he’s known since the central banker was a senior bureaucrat in the Finance Department and the Liberal was public works minister. “I’m not talking about my personal life when I’m on a private vacation; full stop. So I’m not going to entertain your question.”

Stephen Gordon, Mike Moffatt and others are concerned.

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