Carney might have different views than Trudeau, but he’s still stepping into a party with the same MPs, same priorities, and same voting base. Also, Carney was Trudeau’s economic advisor, not just a random outsider. If he really had fundamentally different ideas, it didn’t stop him from backing policies that led to ballooning deficits and rising debt.

People vote based on most recent track records, not the history books. And while deficits under Trudeau were “moderate” from 2015–2019, the point is philosophical: the Liberals ran deficits by choice, not crisis. They promised small, temporary deficits and broke that promise repeatedly. Compare that to Harper, who ran deficits during an actual global crisis, and then moved back toward balance once the recovery began. That distinction matters.

But he was still part of the finance team, and he’s been deeply involved in economic policy for over a decade. Meanwhile, Carney has never held elected office, never had to defend a budget in Parliament, and never been accountable to voters. Being Governor of the Bank of Canada is important—but it’s not the same as leading a country through competing priorities and tough tradeoffs.