The polls, fundraising hauls and endorsements aren't the only things suggesting former central bank governor Mark Carney is on track to win the Liberal leadership — Conservatives seem convinced as well.
Carney has become the primary target of Conservative attacks in recent weeks and the party is telling its supporters through fundraising emails that the race is a "sham" and just a "coronation."
On Wednesday, the party accused Carney of lying to the media after Tuesday's Liberal leadership debate and of indirectly helping U.S. President Donald Trump in his quest to get firms to relocate to the U.S.
When Carney was asked Tuesday whether he approved Brookfield Asset Management's decision to move its headquarters from Toronto to New York when he was the company's chair, Carney told reporters he had "ceased to be chair" in mid-January, when he entered the leadership race.
"The formal decision of the board happened after I ceased to be on the board," he said Tuesday night.
But on Wednesday, the Conservatives circulated a Dec. 1 letter signed by Carney as board chair that says the board had approved the move and urges shareholders to vote for it in a Jan. 27 meeting.
"This letter says that the decision by the board, of which Mark Carney at that time was chair, was unanimous to move the headquarters and Canadian jobs to Donald Trump's hometown of New York City," said Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett.
"This is just days after Donald Trump had threatened Canada for the first time with unjustified tariffs."
Liam Roche from Carney's campaign team replied in an email that the attack shows Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is "scared of running against Mark Carney, and he’s desperate to misrepresent Mark’s serious experience in business because he has no economic experience whatsoever."
"The changes reported are technical in nature, and with respect to jobs, Brookfield has clearly stated that Canadian operations were not impacted," Roche added.
The Dec. 1 letter says the move was intended to position Brookfield Asset Management for inclusion in U.S. stock exchanges. The company is 73 per cent owned by Brookfield Corporation, which is based in Canada.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson also rushed to Carney’s defense today but did not comment on the specifics of the controversy.
“Anyone who knows anything about business knows that boards actually have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders,” he said. “At the end of the day, his job as a chairman of a board is to act in the best interest of shareholders.”
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, former government House leader Karina Gould, Montreal businessman Frank Baylis and Carney all made their closing pitches to Liberal voters in the only two debates of the race on Monday and Tuesday.
Gould invited her rivals into her future cabinet at a news conference just outside of the Parliament buildings on Wednesday. She said she would put Carney in an economics role, have Freeland deal with foreign affairs and task Baylis with health care.
Baylis, a Montreal businessman, owned a medical devices company which he sold for $1.75 billion.
Advance voting in the race began on Wednesday, allowing party members to cast ballots online ahead of the March 9 vote to select a successor for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
