Brookfield Takes Political Heat Over Carney’s Ties With Trudeau

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party and the current favorite to win the next election, attacked former central banker Mark Carney for agreeing to help Justin Trudeau on economic policy.

Carney, who’s chair of Brookfield Asset Management and head of its transition investing group, is giving advice to the prime minister’s Liberal Party on economic growth and productivity in advance of the next campaign, which is due in 2025.

Poilievre alleged Carney was attempting to duck conflict-of-interest disclosures by developing policy for the political party, rather than taking a government position. “He gets all the power and all the money and none of the accountability,” the Conservative chief said, referring to Carney as a “phantom finance minister.”

It’s a signal that the more Carney becomes involved in partisan politics, the more his business associations may be pulled into the fray. Carney holds a series of other business and philanthropic positions, including roles on the advisory board of Pacific Investment Management Co. and chair of Bloomberg Inc.

Poilievre went on to criticize Brookfield directly, calling it a “large multinational corporation that’s moving investment to China” and stating that the firm buys stakes in international fossil fuel projects while Carney opposes them in Canada for environmental reasons.

Carney has publicly said he agreed with Trudeau’s decision to quash the Northern Gateway oil pipeline project, but that some oil and gas investments are still necessary during the clean-energy transition.

Neither Carney nor Brookfield, a Toronto-based global investment firm that manages about $1 trillion in assets, have responded to requests for comment.

Carney — who has the rare distinction of having led two major central banks, first as governor of the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England — serves as the United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance.

Poilievre also slammed Carney’s support of carbon pricing, referring to him repeatedly as “Carbon Tax Carney.” Trudeau’s government brought in a national carbon tax on consumer fuels in 2019 and Poilievre has made it a central issue, pledging to scrap it if elected.

At a parliamentary committee earlier this year, Carney told lawmakers the carbon tax has “served a purpose up until now” and anyone who wants to eliminate it should come up with a “credible and predictable” alternative.

After leaving the Bank of England in 2020, Carney returned to Canada. He has spoken at a number of Liberal events — including a gathering of elected members of parliament this week — and given advice to the government on how Canada could recover from the economic shocks of the pandemic.

In July, Trudeau told reporters he has tried to recruit Carney to enter politics, and there has been much speculation about him as a potential finance minister. Chrystia Freeland, who’s held that job since 2020, rejected claims there’s a rift between her and Trudeau.

Carney has not indicated whether he intends to run for political office.

This is not the first time Poilievre has taken aim at a prominent Liberal due to his business connections. Trudeau’s first finance minister, Bill Morneau, eventually had to divest his holdings in his family’s pension services company after months of attacks from Poilievre.

Morneau left politics several months after the start of the pandemic, opening the way for Freeland to become Canada’s first female finance minister.