The Banker Politician Must Learn the Game, and Fast

Mark Carney is an impressive man with an unmatchable resume.? Longtime lured by lustful Liberals seeking a saviour from impending doom, he is finally heeding the call to ride to the rescue of Canada’s Natural Governing Party.? But he is a rookie as a political athlete and it shows.? With a compressed leadership campaign, sure to be followed almost immediately by an election, he has little time to develop big league skills.? One of the most skilled political communicators of this century, Barack Obama, started out as an awkward campaigner and it took many months of stumbling and bumbling through lowkey events in Iowa before he got better. Carney has no such luxury.

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He must have pictured in his mind that moment when he would step before the microphone to make his maiden speech as a politician.? The words surely percolated in him for a long time. He must have envisaged soaring phrases and thunderous cheers as he launched his political career by applying for the top job.

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Alas.

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In a moment that demanded passion, storytelling and vision, faced with polls showing deep fatigue with the Liberals and a Conservative opponent expert in withering invective, Carney appeared to be reading highlights from an annual report to a Bay Street board. ?He brought a PowerPoint to a knife fight. ?

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The raw materials were there.? Good idea for the international banker to return to the hockey rink in Edmonton where he played as a boy. That’s where resonant storytelling, powerfully delivered, could have helped him. When I write speeches for clients, I always try to find that kind of anecdote to make the speaker relatable. ?

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But it....took...soooo....long to tell the story. ??It needed a tight edit.? ?And maybe a memory of ?a game where his team came from behind to win.? A story about struggling to succeed.

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More than that, he lacked energy, conviction or any sense of pacing that might rouse a crowd. Carney is a man of substance and some charm, but politics at this level demands performances and memorable messages that can find traction in the age of TikTok.? Someone needed to show him some old Jean Chretien speeches for a lesson in the importance of passion, simplicity and relatability.? Remember how the former PM in fractured English with hoarse voice would end his speeches with: “we’ve got a lot of work to do...LET’S DO IT! VIVE LE CANADA!!!" Not Churchillian, but it worked.

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By comparison, Carney’s launch featured painfully long pauses separating dusty prose.? Yes, his teleprompter evidently malfunctioned, but it still seemed he just hadn’t rehearsed his speech enough.? Or perhaps wasn’t coached effectively enough.

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“I’m doing this because Canada is the best country in the world. But. It. Could. Be. Even. Better,” he said, drawing out the final words so pedantically that it took his friendly audience a couple of seconds to realize they were supposed to applaud.?

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Carney has shown real poise and wit in unscripted interactions, like his appearance on the Daily Show or in questions and answers with reporters.? His speeches and speechifying need work. ?They need catchy, quotable phrases delivered with passion so that they can be amplified on social media. He needs to know how to set up an applause line.

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While Mark Carney has the brains and the background, his political skills are raw and untested. He has a steep hill to climb and preciously little time to get better (presuming he wins the leadership) before facing a hostile electorate and an opponent in Pierre Poilievre who has spent his entire adult life shredding political adversaries. ?An international banker with zero experience in retail politics represents a target-rich environment.

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