Liberal leadership and future prime minister frontrunner Mark Carney is facing scrutiny for expressing two wildly different opinions on the future of Canada’s pipelines, depending on whether he’s speaking to an English or French audience.
Conservative MP Dan Mazier posted a split-screen video to X, contrasting two statements made by Carney only days apart.
“He was caught saying one thing to Western Canada—and a totally different thing to Quebec,” said Mazier. “Carney is sneaky and will say anything to become Prime Minister. Canadians should not trust a word he says.”
In English, Carney said he would use all powers of the federal government, including emergency powers, to accelerate energy projects and boost the economy.
However, he expressed a different opinion when speaking in French. When asked if he would impose a pipeline on Quebec or other provinces, Carney’s response was “never.”
“If I were prime minister, my government would use our emergency powers to accelerate projects that are in the national interest. But we’d have to decide with the provinces, with the First Nations,” he said.
Another clip of Carney emerged where he was discussing pipelines in French. He stuck with the French script that he had used earlier.
“The provinces, including Quebec, must agree with such projects. So there are a number of major projects, including Energy East. But we’ll see. There will have to be discussions about this. And at the same time that we’re having discussions, we are talking about free trade within the Canadian market,” said Carney.
“Lying Carney is all things to all people,” said Conservative Candidate Roman Baber.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre echoed the concerns about Carney telling two different stories.
“Don’t believe him in any language,” said Poilievre.
Poilievre previously challenged Carney on his pipeline stance back in 2021, when Poilievre questioned Carney at a committee hearing.
While questioning Carney, Poilievre reached the determination that he supported pipelines abroad in the United Arab Emirates and Brazil while opposing them in Canada.
“It’s a double standard,” said Poilievre. “You make billions of dollars off foreign pipelines and you shut them down here at home, putting our people out of work.”
Poilievre argued that Carney’s stance against energy was not about the environment, as Canada’s pipelines would ship the world’s most ethically sourced energy.
“You’re happy to profit off of foreign fossil fuel companies while killing jobs among our own people. How do you address that flagrant hypocrisy? It smacks of the Davos elite at its worst,” said Poilievre.
Carney is currently one of the candidates in the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership election. The winner will be crowned on Mar. 9 and immediately become Canada’s Prime Minister.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre previously warned Canadians during an exclusive interview with True North that Carney will push for a quick election if he wins the leadership race to avoid scrutiny and capitalize on the political honeymoon.
True North reached out to Carney for comment but received no reply.