William Watson: TACO Trump vs. CAFE Carney — Carney Always Funds Everything

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An acronym to summarize Mark Carney's governing style would focus on travel and spendingLast updated 1 hour ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney outside the West Wing of the White House on October 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesTACO is the acronym for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” the conclusion many people drew when the U.S. president backed down from his first round of steep tariffs last spring after the stock market tanked. (You’d think the mnemonic for that would be TGIF-ISM: Trump’s Greatest Influencing Factor Is the Stock Market.)THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountTACO is a dangerous formula for taunting an insecure egomaniac with manliness issues: remember the appalling allusions to penis size in the 2016 Republican primary debates? May U.S. politics never stoop so low again.Spendthrift to his gilded core, Trump has displayed frugality regarding only one thing: the spilling of American blood. Telling someone so thin-skinned he is a coward encourages the kind of deadly adventurism his TACO critics would instantly condemn.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againMight there be a defining acronym for Prime Minister Mark Carney? So far the best I can come up with is CAFE, with two possible meanings.One is “Carney Ambitiously Flies Everywhere.” In the last 30 days alone he was in France, Geneva, Vancouver (for soccer, among other things), Vancouver Island, Outaouais, Que., Vancouver (soccer again), Toronto, Kuujjuaq, Que., Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Calgary. Following up a visit to Saudi Arabia with one to Calgary was slick, touching down in two world oil capitals in successive days. Albertans might want to judge which oil leader was shown the greatest deference: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.No doubt Carney would argue that if his frequent flying is ambitious, those ambitions are for Canada and its place in the world, and, like it or not, do require group photo-ops and serial sit-downs with the same people at the G7, the NATO summit and various other gatherings. But even new politicians are seldom unambitious and it can hardly trouble Carney’s ego to have the Wall Street Journal run a two-parter about him called “The Canadian who steered Europe away from the U.S.” — though it clearly will trouble the big orange ego that these days counts most in geopolitics.The Journal’s headline surely credits Carney with greater influence than he actually has over the likes of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, all strong, independent people entirely capable of making up their own minds about Europe’s relationship with a rogue U.S. administration (even if Starmer never seemed to know quite who he was). In fact, Carney seems more intent on steering Canada, not Europe, away from the U.S. — defying tectonic movement that began 80-million years ago. We never got that UN Security Council seat that former prime minister Justin Trudeau wanted so badly, but Mark Carney now has us in the Eurovision song contest. Take that, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin!The other meaning of CAFE that applies to Carney is “Carney Always Funds Everything.” A modest down-sizing of the federal bureaucracy does seem to be underway — even as more outsiders are brought in to supervise massive funding for new decision-making agencies designed to oversee or bypass established channels. But there have been very few high-profile cuts, Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh’s new social programs are still being funded and in last spring’s fiscal statement all but two per cent of unexpected new revenues were spent.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.The self-evident truth that Carney may have learned in his economics classes is that spending can be a social lubricant as powerful as alcohol. Economists favour projects, private or public, whose benefits are greater than their costs. When that’s true, some of the benefit can be spread around so as to make the project more possible. To be blunt, people can be paid off out of the surplus.Post columnist John Ivison wrote recently about how Carney impressively finessed B.C. Premier David Eby’s objections to a new oil pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver both by taking a southern route, so as to avoid a direct confrontation over the current ban on tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast, but also by putting federal money into things Eby wants. Ivison said that, since many things on Eby’s wish list were also on Carney’s, this was “a skilful use of the thread to unite the pearls.”Political extortion is not something we want to encourage. Better that the surplus from new major projects not have to be divvied up beforehand among those who claim veto power over them. But if the choice is between paying people off and not having the projects at all, well, you tell me.The obvious danger in piling on spending the way Carney has is that the total spent to get a project through ends up being greater than the potential surplus from it. Because Canada has so many people who make their living lining up to get their piece of the action, any action, that’s now a real possibility.Prompted by Ivison’s pearls metaphor, I looked up the lyrics of the 1940s hit, “String of Pearls”: “Every pearl’s a star above/Wrapped in dreams and filled with love.” Wrapped in dreams certainly sounds like politics. Filled with love, not so much.The song’s storyline is about getting a five-and-dime, Woolworth’s string of pearls while waiting for the real thing. CAFE Carney Can’t Always Fund Everything. At some stage he’s going to have to five-and-dime it.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.