The Power of the Less Powerful

A Look at Mark Carney

By: Jim Jackson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In February of 2025, amid US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and social media threats of annexation, as Canadians watched then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech admonishing us to explore Canada for our summer and forgo Kentucky Bourbon and Florida orange juice, not a lot of people would have recognized the name of Mark Carney.

Barely a month later, that changed. Drastically.

A long-term thinker in a world of hasty, late-night social media posts, Mark Carney is an unlikely political leader. There are no slogans. There’s no ragebaiting. There’s policy. Policy that considers both markets and humanity. Policy and people. Value and values.

This book looks at the origins of that policymaker—from how his early life in the North shaped him to how our national sport made him cool under pressure. From how his intellectual curiosity took him to elite universities to how his deep humanitarian compassion led him to understand the human dimension of economics.

There’s an old Chinese curse—“may you live in interesting times.” I do hope this little book can help you to ignore the noise and focus on what matters in these interesting times.

Canada strong.