Rob Breakenridge: Mark Carney’s (foolish) summer vacation in Italy
- The prime minister’s August vacation in Italy is criticized for poor timing amid a major Canada-U.S. trade tariff deadline and high-stakes negotiations.
- Although on a “working vacation,” the choice to leave the country contradicts government messaging promoting Canadian destinations and the “Canada Strong Pass” initiative.
- The decision raises questions about prioritizing national responsibilities over personal time, especially given the prime minister’s role during a “once-in-a-lifetime crisis.”
- There is potential political risk if the Canada-U.S. trade relationship worsens, as the vacation could be seen as a failure to fully address critical issues.
Canadians surely don’t begrudge our elected leaders — including even the prime minister — some time off now and then.
A summer vacation, or at least some down time with family, is not something that would be controversial or of concern to most Canadian voters.
However, the when and where do matter. This prime minister, who has shown a surprising amount of political acumen for a rookie prime minister, has failed on both counts with his August Italian getaway.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Mark Carney is “on a reduced schedule in the week of Aug. 10,” and will be in Italy “for personal commitments until Aug. 17.”
Now, in fairness, it is a challenge for a head of government to schedule a vacation. As we’ve seen, crises can arise at any time and there’s no way to know in advance whether an expected quiet week will indeed remain as such.
For the prime minister, it’s always going to be a working vacation to some extent. As the PMO stresses, Carney “is in close contact with his team and officials on several priorities.”
Furthermore, it’s not as though the government grinds to a halt when the prime minister is on vacation. While Carney relaxes in beautiful Tuscany, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has been in Washington, D.C. this week meeting with his U.S. counterpart ahead of next week’s tariff deadline.
That deadline of course, did not just suddenly appear out of nowhere this week. And that’s what’s so bizarre and tone-deaf about Carney’s decision here: it flies in the face of his government’s own messaging and framing around some key issues.
As Carney himself has stated, this is a pivotal moment for Canada and for Canada-U.S. relations, specifically. There has been a constant emphasis on just how high the stakes are for our country in navigating and meeting this challenge.
It was July 20 that U.S. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs targeting Canadian imports, which would take effect after 30 days. While Carney might have wished for a quieter summer, those hopes were dashed by Trump’s agenda and this latest curveball.
As a prime minister who has built a political brand as the leader to guide Canada through what he has called a “once-in-a-lifetime crisis,” it’s hard to understand why Carney would see any point within that 30-day window as down time, let alone the final week before the deadline.
On top of that, there’s the questionable optics of leaving the country for this vacation.
“This summer, we choose Canada!” is the proud declaration that greets visitors to the government website for the “Canada Strong Pass.” The pass, of course, was introduced by the Carney government last year in response to Canadians “uniting to find new ways to discover and celebrate our beautiful country.”
As ill-timed and ill-advised as it was to jet off just days before a key moment in Canada-U.S. trade talks, that’s compounded by the decision to very much not “choose Canada.”
It’s not just that Italian vacations are well out of the reach of most Canadian families, it’s the deliberate undermining of the message that Canadian destinations are worthy of attention and in need of support. It’s one thing to see that written on a government website, but it would have been far more powerful and meaningful to see the prime minister leading by example.
The “when” is still a problem here, but the PM and his team whiffed on an easy political win when it comes to the “where.”
Look, obviously Mark Carney was previously in a position where an impromptu summer Tuscan getaway was easy and simple. At some point in the future, he will be in such a position once again.
In the meantime, though, there is some degree of sacrifice that’s required in being the prime minister. That doesn’t mean completely sacrificing summer holidays or family time, but it does mean prioritizing the needs of the country and the responsibilities that come with the job — a job that Carney sought out, let’s not forget.
There is also a political risk this all creates for the prime minister if things go sideways next week or in the weeks ahead. There could be all sorts of factors at play in a scenario where the Canada-U.S. trade relationship erodes even further, but it would be fair to ask if the prime minister did all he could to prevent that.
It would be unfair, of course, to pin any such breakdown solely on this vacation, but it would only serve to reinforce the perception that maybe this wasn’t the wisest move,
In the meantime, Canadians can simply hope that the Italian sunshine refocuses and reenergizes the prime minister. As he has reminded us many times, the stakes are high for Canada in the coming weeks.
Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com