FIRST READING: No Canadian P.M. has ever been more personally enmeshed with the U.S.

Mark Carney strikes a fighter's pose at a 2025 campaign rally. Photo by John Mahoney / MONTREAL GAZETTE

Article content

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Article content

TOP STORY

Article content

Article content

In his address to last weekend’s Liberal convention, Prime Minister Mark Carney once again emphasized the need for Canada to rethink its dependence on the U.S.

Article content

“A good number of our historic strengths, which came from our close ties with the U.S., have become our weaknesses,” Carney said in French to the Montreal crowd.

Article content

Article content

He said that even if Canada gets over the “initial shock” of the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, it should “never forget” the lessons. “We need to take care of ourselves,” he said in French.

Article content

Article content

It’s not a new argument from the prime minister, who has often outlined his plan to steer Canada away from U.S. trade and political influence. This time last year, Carney said in a campaign speech that Canada’s integrated relationship with the U.S. was “over,” and that Canadians must “fundamentally reimagine our economy.”

Article content

But the paradox of the claim is that it’s coming from a figure who is more personally enmeshed with the United States than any other prime minister in Canada’s history.

Article content

Half of Carney’s children live in the U.S. His wife was recently working for a U.S. company. Almost all of his multi-million dollar portfolio is in U.S. assets. He is Canada’s only prime minister to receive his undergraduate degree from a U.S. university.

Article content

And one of his last acts before entering politics was to help move one of Canada’s largest corporations to a new home on U.S. soil.

Article content

Article content

In late 2024, just a couple months before Carney entered politics as a candidate for the Liberal leadership, Carney oversaw the relocation of Brookfield Asset Management from its Toronto headquarters to one in New York City.

Article content

Article content

The move was justified at the time as a means to secure more U.S. capital, and to potentially score Brookfield a spot on the S&P 500 stock index.

Article content

Carney was serving as Brookfield’s chair. In a letter dated Dec. 1, 2024 and later circulated by the Conservative Party, he urged shareholders to support the move out of Toronto.

Article content

“The most common feedback we hear from investors encourages us to position (Brookfield Asset Management) for inclusion in some of the most widely followed global large cap stock indices, including in the U.S.,” he wrote.

Article content

In July, four months after his swearing-in as prime minister, Carney first disclosed the details of a personal investment portfolio that he had placed into a “blind trust” to be managed at arms length throughout his time in office.

Article content

The trust contains 567 entities. And according to an analysis by Monique Kasonga at the Investigative Journalism Foundation, 91 per cent of them are American.