Carney and the Liberals have their own party drama going on

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Turns out Pierre Poilievre isn’t the only political leader dealing with drama in their caucus. It seems Mark Carney and the Liberals have their own share.

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Carney is dealing with disgruntled environmentalist MPs, including some that might leave the Liberals if he goes too far in the direction of sanity.

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That may be why a report being prepared for Carney on the electric vehicle mandate will soon recommend keeping the mandate but delaying it slightly. To get his majority, Carney needs to make sure that green believers like Jonathan Wilkinson, Steven Guilbeault and others don’t bolt – though it does appear he would like to replace both MPs.

Canada’s EV mandate is supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, and would require carmakers to ensure 20% of all cars and trucks sold next year are zero emission vehicles. Each year, the percentage of sales required to be zero emission vehicles will increase until a 100% commitment is reached in 2035.

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Prime Minister Carney paused the mandate but didn’t get rid of it after he was elected. The Americans have dropped their mandate all together and the auto industry said Canada’s mandate wasn’t achievable.

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There has been pressure on Carney to follow the American path and drop the mandate as well, especially since these vehicles don’t sell without massive government subsidies. Inside the Liberal caucus, Carney is facing pressure against such moves by his own MPs who recently formed a Liberal environmental caucus.

Bottom line, Canada will continue with this bad policy that will hurt the economy just to hold the Liberal caucus together.

Guilbeault and Wilkinson unhappy

Guilbeault, Carney’s heritage minister, is among those deeply opposed to following the same path as the Americans even though it’s the most sensible path. Carney can’t afford a split in his cabinet, and he can’t afford for Guilbeault to leave the Liberal caucus.

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Guilbeault’s riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie has elected NDP and Bloc members in the past and could easily flip to either party if Guilbeault were to step down — something there is speculation about in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson, the former natural resources minister who was left out of Carney’s cabinet, is causing problems for the boss. Wilkinson was not only slighted by being dropped from the front bench, but he also doesn’t agree with where Carney is going on issues like dropping the consumer carbon tax or pausing the EV mandate.

In early September, it was reported that Wilkinson would leave politics and be given a diplomatic appointment in Europe. This news came out at the same time as Bill Blair being tapped to replace Ralph Goodale as Canada’s high commissioner in Britain.

Wilkinson hasn’t landed on an appointment yet and, according to Liberal sources, has turned down some offers, including Sweden. He’s been angling for a spot in Brussels where he would be responsible for relations with the European Union, a post that became vacant in September.

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Wilkinson’s riding of North Vancouver is one that could flip Conservative as it did between 2008 and 2015 and in the past, the area even elected a Reform MP.

As Carney and his team continue to try and court Conservative, Bloc and even NDP MPs to join the Liberals and give him his majority government, he is also clearly having to herd cats within his own caucus to keep people on board.

Liberal plan to undermine Poilievre

The Liberals are courting several Conservative MPs hard and if they can’t get them to cross the floor, they’re pushing for the MPs to resign or announce they won’t run in the future. One MP was reportedly getting so many calls and texts that they turned their phone off to escape Carney’s full-court press.

Even if these tactics don’t work, the end goal appears to be to destabilize the Conservatives and undermine Poilievre ahead of his leadership review vote in January. Since losing the election in April, Poilievre and the Conservatives have held on in public polling and remain a threat if an election were to come soon.

This all appears to be an attempt to get a majority and if not, to ensure Poilievre is out as Conservative leader. If he is at the helm in an election come spring, the Conservatives could easily win that contest or once again hold Carney to a minority.

The drama continues, all driven by the internal party politics of the Liberals.

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