Who is Mark Carney, Really?

Monday, September 1, 2025

This week from The Walrus:

Who Is Mark Carney, Really?

We hired the guy with the best résumé. He’s using power in ways few other prime ministers have dared

BY MARK BOURRIE

A photo illustration of Mark Carney against a red background. His face is a collage of other parts of portraits of him.

Carney isn’t just a response to Trump. He’s also a reaction to Poilievre, to Trudeau, and to the endless churn of outrage.

Carney’s office projects the corporate attitude of the boss. Staff show up in business suits. Carney doesn’t tolerate tardiness. Everyone needs to review their files and be ready to answer Carney’s questions. When he was governor of the Bank of England, staff learned it was better to admit to being unprepared than to try to bluff.

Ministers, deputy ministers, and their staff must work with “pace and urgency” to implement Carney’s plans. He wants action: public servants must stop being bogged down in process.

Read the Story

A closeup photo of Pierre Poilievre, wearing a suit and tie, his hand resting near his eyebrow.

Pierre Poilievre’s Toughest Audience Yet: His Own Party

After losing the 2025 election and his seat, the conservative leader needs to convince his base he’s still the one to take on Mark Carney

BY PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER

The tails of two large airplanes with the navy and red Air Canada logos. In the distance you can see a plane taking off.

Air Canada Flight Attendants Faced Down Ottawa—and Won

Companies have been leaning on governments to break strikes. Now they’ll think twice

BY DAVID MOSCROP

A photo illustration of a man in a suit putting a toonie into a piggy bank covered in the American flag.

Boycotts Be Damned: Why Canadian Money Keeps Flowing to the US

Bell Canada, the Canada Pension Plan, and traders are making big‐time investments in America

BY DAVID MOSCROP

Hands burst out of an ipPhone screen holding shopping bags.

How “Buy Now, Pay Later” Seduced a Generation—and Trapped It in Debt

From burritos to Beyoncé tickets, micro‐loans now bankroll our most routine needs

BY VASS BEDNAR

A black-and-white photo of the Dionne quintuplets, five identical teenage sisters, hands folded while kneeling in a pew.

How the Dionne Quintuplets Learned to Say Nothing

As little kids, the sisters were put on display as a tourist attraction. As teens, they lived a more private life

BY MAVIS GALLANT

A child tries to climb a rock climbing wall.

My Job as a Parent Is to Make My Kids’ Lives a Little Harder

Obstacle parenting is about cultivating focus and endurance, two skills lost in the ChatGPT era

BY MICHELLE CYCA

A photo of a woman walking below an ad for American Eagle with a blonde woman that reads 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.'

Sydney Sweeney, Cracker Barrel, and the Last Gasp of the Culture Wars

The controversies are smaller, the outrage louder, and the stakes nearly nonexistent

BY LUKE SAVAGE

A cow against a pop art background with a yellow justice scale on top of its horns.

The Beef Over Kosher Beef

Jewish groups say new food safety rules infringe on faith. Regulators argue they’re needed to ensure animals don’t suffer

BY COREY MINTZ

A close up of man on a paddleboard at sunset. He's pushing the paddle forward with water spraying forward to the camera.

I Channelled My Inner Swamp Man for A 1,200‐Mile Paddleboarding Trip

Some might call it an awkward, inefficient manner of transportation. They’d be right

BY DAN RUBINSTEIN

An illustration on a red background featuring ancient Greek pillars and a couple, the woman's arms around a man's shoulder, her hands crossed. Only the tops of their heads are visible.

More Love

I would’ve thought they were siblings had they not occasionally kissed

BY MICHAEL LAPOINTE

Letters to the Editor: July/August 2025

Loneliness, low‐income patients, and Elon Musk

BY READERS

Today’s Quiz Question

“Buy now, pay later” (BNPL) programs are increasingly popular among the mobile-first generation, but they have quickly evolved into a shadow credit system without the accountability or visibility of traditional lending frameworks. What action did the US government take in 2024 to better regulate the BNPL market?

Yes, I Know the Answer

When animals thrive, we all do. Join us at The Walrus Talks: The Power of Animals for an insightful evening exploring the ethical, environmental, and scientific impacts of animal welfare in Canada and worldwide.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with innovative thinkers and connect with a community that cares about creating a more compassionate world for all living beings.

Join Us

This week on What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by award‐winning author Chelene Knight. Her most recent book is Safekeeping: A Writer’s Guided Journal for Launching a Book with Love, published by House of Anansi in early 2025. Chelene and Nathan talk about the expectations she had about the life of a writer when she published her first book, about how she has learned to be intentional in her decision‐making and not chase every opportunity that comes her way as a writer, and about the ideas that may end up driving her next book, a potential novel.

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