Does Mark Carney risk conflicts of interest?

The Conservative Party of Canada, rattled by their precipitate slide in the polls, and with a federal election pending (widely expected on April 28th), are taking wild swings at new Liberal leader Mark Carney. In particular, they are trying to make something - anything! - out of Carney's enviable financial position.

Pierre Poilievre, and his attack dog Michael Barrett - yes, the attack dog of an attack dog! - have been casting aspersions that Mr. Carney is playing fast and loose with the ethics and conflict-of-interest rules that Canadian politicians are subject to.

Spoiler alert: he's not. Well, you might have guessed that. The whole raison d'etre of the Tories is to find fault, in any way possible, and even in some ways impossible, of their political nemesis. Deprived of Justin Trudeau as a convenient target, they have been trying to portray Carney as "sneaky", "European,", etc, and also as rich, which carries its own set of political value judgements.

Yes, Carney has done very well for himself - he has not been a lifetime career politician like Mr. Poilievre - and he is clearly a very rich guy. Do we need to know exactly HOW rich, and exactly where his riches lie? Probably not.

Suffice it that he is following the stipulated conflict-of-interest rules - enshrined in Canadian law by Conservative PM Stephen Harper, let it be noted - to the letter, even in advance of the required deadlines. So, he is divesting himself of his personal investment holdings by placing them in a blind trust, so that he has no control over sales and purchases. He will also recuse himself from any deliberations that might directly influence investment that he holds in trust (although those holdings could change without him knowing - that is the whole point of a blind trust in these circumstances). And he is pre-clearing everything with the independent parliamentary Ethics Commissioner. 

It's hard to know what else the Tories can ask for. There is no requirement to name and value his investments at this point, nor should there be. The Ethics Commissioner will be keeping a wary eye on him; that is his job. Yes, there are those who argue that a blind trust is not sufficient to guard against conflicts of interest. But most reasonable people - and all political parties - believe that that the system as it stands is indeed adequate.