Mark Carney and the Chatham House Tentacle

The Mark Carney tentacles seem to reach every corner of the globe.  His affiliation with a very wide range of groups including, most prominently, the World Economic Forum make it almost impossible for Canadians to determine whether there are conflicts of interest that will present themselves in the future.  One of his tentacles reaches into Chatham House, a United Kingdom-based international think tank and registered charity.

Here is an announcement from Chatham House regarding Carney's appointment as the group's Chair of the Panel of Senior Advisors dated May 17, 2022:

Here is another announcement regarding Carney's appointment as co-president of Chatham House dated March 22, 2024, less than a year before he ran as the leader of Canada's Liberal Party:

Here's his name as it appears in the group's 2023 - 2024 Annual Review:

Interestingly, as of February 28, 2025, Carney still had not resigned as President of Chatham House according to reporting by the National Post despite telling Canadians that he had resigned from all of his outside positions.

Now, not surprisingly, there is another interesting twist to this story.  According to the Government of Canada's International Assistance Projects Funded by Global Affairs Canada portal, Chatham House has benefitted from funding by Canadian taxpayers as shown here:

While both projects were funded prior to Carney's appointment as the group's Chair of the Panel of Senior Advisors, with his connections to the Trudeau government which began in 2020 and his close affiliation with fellow WEFer Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one has to wonder if there isn't some sort of connection between his association with Chatham House and the Canadian government funding of Chatham House projects.

If we go back to fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, we find this on the Donor's page of the Chatham House website:

 

It turns out that in the fiscal year ending March 2022, Global Affairs Canada was one of Chatham Houses largest donors.

Up to March 31, 2024, the Government of Canada through various departments had also been research supporters for Chatham House:

If we put this all together, it begs the question; how much did Mark Carney have to do with funding Chatham House using Canadians' tax dollars prior to becoming Canada's Prime Minister?  It will also be interesting to see how much funding Chatham House receives from Canadian taxpayers under a Carney-led government.

The Century Initiative and the Carney Government

The Century Initiative, a "national non-partisan charity with a mission to enhance Canada's long-term prosperity and resiliency" has a lofty goal for Canada's future as you will see in this posting.  After providing you with a basic understanding of the Century Initiative and we'll look at the connections between one of the political leaders in Canada and this "charity".

The Century Initiative, by its own description is:

"a diverse, non-partisan network of Canadians from the business, academic, and charitable sectors with a shared belief that, with the right approach to growth, we can enhance our economic strength and resilience at home, and our influence abroad."

Century Initiative was founded in 2014 years by a group of "influential Canadian leaders" who came together to champion the "long-term thinking and planning that would shape Canada’s future for the next century. Recognizing the demographic, economic, and security challenges on the horizon.". 

Here is the group's current Board of Directors:

Let's focus on the Century Initiative's Board Chair, Mark D. Wiseman:

This individual is well connected with work experience at BlackRock, the former President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Board Chair at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation and a myriad of other boards/organizations.  We will get back to Mark Wiseman later.

Here's what Century Initiative does:

 Here's who pays to get that work done from the group's 2023 Annual Report:

 

Just in case you were curious, here's what the group's finances look like:

 

And, here's an announcement showing how a member of Canada's mainstream is being used to propagate the group's agenda because it needs a high profile media outlet to propagate its particular brand of propaganda:

 The lobbing group's key goal is to "responsively grow" Canada's population to 100 million people by the year 2100 to "enhance Canada's long-term prosperity, resiliency and global influence".  The group notes that the Government of Canada had (as of 2023) committed to increasing immigrant admissions to 500,000 per year by 2025 – more than doubling the number of admissions to Canada in 2015  The group does note that, while Canadians have historically supported immigration as shown here:

 ...that this may change and that Canada's advantage as a destination for immigrants could change as Canadians grow increasingly concerned about the impact of immigration on:

1.) Access to affordable housing with housing markets being at all-time unaffordalibilty levels.

2.) Public infrastructure and services with a dramatic shortage of health care providers and health care infrastructure.

3.) Economic challenges including high levels of real unemployment and a low productivity rate

The Century Initiative releases an annual scorecard showing how Canada is proceeding on key aspects of the group's vision and compares it to the scores achieved by other nations:

 

When it comes to increasing Canada's population to 100 million, here's what the group says about Canada's progress with my bolds:

"Population growth, immigration and prosperity are at a pivotal stage in this country and around the world.  Canada is on track to reach 100 million people by 2100 and remains a stable, democratic society. However, reaching this target will require a war-time-like effort to support both natural population growth and growth through immigration.

Efforts to safeguard Canada’s future through responsible population growth could be undermined by poor performances on critical indicators like housing affordability, investment in infrastructure and climate change.

Canada’s fertility rate recently fell to a record low and life expectancy fell for the second year in a row. A continued decline in fertility rates would bring far-reaching social and economic consequences in the years ahead, including on labour markets and social services. And while the decision whether or not to have children is highly personal in nature, more robust supports like affordable day care and stronger public education are key inputs to these decisions. The government’s enshrinement of a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system into legislation is an important, arguably transformational, step. 

But more work is needed to increase spaces and recruit and retain the workers necessary for this ambitious program.  Investments in housing, infrastructure, and climate-resilient communities will benefit all Canadians, whether they were born here or not. Building a stronger future means more than just growing our population – it’s about growing well – through immigration, infrastructure investments, economic management, support for children and families, and education.

It’s about preserving Canada’s position on the global stage as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.  It’s about planning for a bigger, bolder, more resilient Canada and working together to get there."

So, in this group's opinion, Canada definitely needs to improve its performance when it comes to meeting the Century Initiative's goal of more than doubling Canada's population over the next 7 decades.

Now, with that background and as promised, let's look at the group's Board Chair, Mark D. Wiseman.  Here is a recent announcement from Mark Carney's government:

 

Mark Carney is bringing the Chair of the Century Initiative into his inner circle as a member of his Council on Canada-U.S. relations.

Not surprisingly, the Century Initiative does have a history of lobbying the Canadian government as shown here:

 ...and here:

 

 

So, basically, Canadians now have a Century Initiative insider as a member of "Team Carney" which would suggest that Canada will continue to open itself to very high levels of immigration that were a key part of the Trudeau government's plans for a post-nation state.  This will mean that Canada's housing market and health care system will continue to be under severe levels of stress with a shortage of both affordable housing and timely health care being part of Canadians' lives for the foreseeable future.

Mark Carney, the Abortion Conundrum and Political Opportunism

As Canadians well know, the Liberal Party of Canada very often uses abortion as a wedge/dog whistle issue, claiming that the Conservative Party of Canada will move to ban abortion in Canada.  With that in mind, let's take a look at the abortion conundrum which now faces the Liberal Party of Canada and how it could affect the party in the future. 

 

I'd like to open this posting with a quote from this article from the Catholic News Agency dated October 4, 2021:

In the article, the author notes that Pope Francis has made significant comments about abortion including the following: 

1.) September 15, 2021 - Abortion is murder. 

2.) September 25, 2020 - Abortion should not be considered an "essential service"

3.) October 10, 2018 - Abortion is like hiring a hitman 

4.) June 16, 2018 - Abortion of disabled foetuses is like what the Nazis did

5.) February 18, 2016 - Abortion is against the Hippocratic oath and is an absolute evil. 

6.) June 18, 2015 - Concern for the protection of nature is incompatible with the justification of abortion

7.) September 20, 2013 - In all its phases and at any age, human life is always sacred.

The Catholic Church has always been very clear on its anti-abortion stance throughout recent history.

Now, you may wonder how this ties into Mark Carney, Canada's current unelected Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada who is now running for election.  Here's the connection:

The Tablet is a 185 year old Catholic weekly review which was founded in 1840 and is the second-oldest weekly journal in the United Kingdom.  

Carney also has links to the Vatican itself; he sits on the Vatican's Steering Committee of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism which was founded in 2020, spearheaded by Lynn Forester de Rothschild (yes, that Rothschild family). Thanks to Internet Archive, we still have evidence of this leadership role in this group:

While his bio has been scrubbed from the website, we can still see his face on this image taken from this webpage:

I would imagine that it's only highly influential and active/faithful Catholics that would be considered for steering committee membership in a Vatican-sponsored Council. 

Let's go back to the abortion issue.  Here is a quote from a press conference held on March 23, 2025 during his election announcement:

So, in Liberal leader Carney's current world, he supports a woman's right to choose an abortion, following the lead of the Liberal Party's stance on the issue.

Now, let's put the pieces together.  Mark Carney, a "high level" Catholic Church insider, a church that has very, very clearly condemned and vilified abortion, is now pro-choice.  Is this a political "marriage of convenience"?  Has he taken this stance to win over the Liberal voting base or, as in the the case of his sudden "deconversion" from his stance on carbon taxes as a necessary solution to achieve net zero, has he become just another political opportunist who will take any stance necessary to win votes? 

Only time will tell whether this avowed Catholic truly believes in the right of a woman to choose abortion.

The Liberal Government's Solution to the National Housing Crisis

Canada's Mortgage and Housing Corporation or CMHC, the federal government's crown corporation which is responsible for Canada's housing through its administration of the National Housing Act, has recently released its solution to Canada's ongoing housing affordability crisis.  CMHC claims that it contributes to the well-being of Canada's housing situation, ensuring that more Canadians have access to affordable housing.  As such, it recently released its Housing Design Catalogue, a collection of standardized designs that will "make homebuilding easier" for Canadians.

Let's start by looking at Canada's housing affordability according to the National Bank:

 As you can see, in Canada's major cities, the monthly mortgage payments on a median-priced dwelling (includes non-condos and condos) as a percentage of household income has reached and remains at painful levels in Toronto (78.4 percent) and Vancouver (92.3 percent).  In Canada as a whole, mortgage payments are 56.6 percent of household income, up from an average of 40.7 percent since 2000. 

According to Statista, Canada's house price-to-income ratio was the second highest in the world in 2023 as shown here:

So, let's look at the Canadian government's solution to the housing problem:

Because one of the key aspects of Canada's housing plan is to densify neighbourhoods as quoted here from the website:

"Adding more homes to our neighbourhoods is a key part of addressing Canada's housing crisis.  The catalogue makes this easier by providing plans that are focused on infill development and gentle density.".

Gentle density - it's a nice way of describing a 15 minute city, isn't it?

Since the Canadian/Liberal government is so wonderful, they have provided housing designs for each part of Canada.  Let's look at one of the suggested housing designs for the least unaffordable regional market, British Columbia, noting that the publication says absolutely nothing about the cost of constructing or purchasing one of their recommended designs:

 

Let's look at the smallest design, the Accessory Dwelling Unit 01 which comes it a massive 540 square feet:

Here is a more detailed floor plan showing that occupants will essentially living in a three tiny room home:

 

Now, let's look at the recommended housing designs for Canada's second least affordable housing markets, Ontario:

Let's look at the smallest design, the Accessory Dwelling Unit 01 which comes it an ample 634 square feet:

Here is a more detailed floor plan showing that occupants will essentially living in a rather cramped three room home:

So, if you like the thought of living in someone's backyard in a dwelling that is roughly the size of two shipping containers, these are the housing plans for you.  You can guarantee one thing though - you won't find Canada's political class living in one of these tiny homes. 

Canada's housing market is a disaster zone thanks to the Liberal government's open border policy and, under the World Economic Forum insider and now Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, I would suspect that things will not improve. Young Canadians have no hope of owning a home but, then again, perhaps it's part of the "you'll own nothing and be happy" mantra of the ruling class.

A Digital Canadian Dollar - The Future of Mark Carney's Canada

Now that 130,000 Liberals have picked Canada's next Prime Minister, a former two-time central banker, we would be wise to think about where Canada is headed under a Mark Carney government, particularly when it comes to our personal financial futures.  His coronation brought back thoughts from late 2023 when the Bank of Canada, Carney's former employer, released a survey asking Canadians about their views on a digital Canadian dollar aka a central bank digital currency.  Let's look at an excerpt from the results of the survey which found the following:

1.) Canadians place a high value on holding cash that is backed by their central bank and want to maintain access to bank notes.

2.) Canadians value their right to privacy and many expressed concerns that a digital dollar could compromise that right.

3.) A digital dollar should be easily accessible and should neither add barriers nor worsen existing ones.

4.) A digital dollar should not add to financial stability risks.

Basically, Canadians who responded to the survey were strongly against a digital Canadian dollar and strongly backed the continued existence of bank notes, responses which the bank appears to have taken to heart at least publicly, however, it did leave itself one significant loophole as quoted here with my bold:

"In an era of rapid digitalization, the Bank is undertaking the necessary work to be ready if Canadians’ payment preferences or needs change. Ultimately, the decision about whether or when to issue a digital dollar will be up to Canadians and their elected representatives in Parliament."

Here's a screen capture showing the "What's Next" section of the report on the Bank of Canada's survey for posterity's sake:

 

And, there you have it.  The ultimate decision about whether to implement a digital Canadian dollar lies in the hands of Canada's Parliament which is now led by a former central banker and strong advocate of central bank digital currencies.  The stumbling block to Canada's CBDC has now been removed and I don't think that Mark Carney cares one whit about what Canadians think about a cashless society.

The only question now is how long will it be before Canada adopts a central bank digital currency?  Canada's only hope is that a Carney-led Liberal party is either defeated in the next election or remains in minority status as long as the other parties are anti-digital Canadian dollar.

Mark Carney and the Semiconductor Industry

At at recent public meeting, Mark Carney, the Liberal Party of Canada leadership heir apparent made the following comment about one aspect of Canada's trading relationship with the United States:

Apparently, in Carney World, Canada is the biggest supplier of semiconductors to the United States.

Let's do a fact check on this comment starting with data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.  Here is a graphic showing the source nations for U.S. imports of semiconductor devices for 2023:

 

You'll notice that Canada supplies the United States with a massive 0.79 percent of its semiconductor device imports, well below front runners Vietnam at 20.6 percent, Thailand at 17.3 percent, Malaysia at 14.8 percent and Cambodia at 9.69 percent.  In fact, Canada is even behind Mexico which supplies 2.56 percent of American imports of semiconductor devices.

Canada doesn't even rank close to the top of the list when it comes to the manufacturing of semiconductors with Taiwan, South Korea the United States, Japan and China heading the pack when it comes to actually producing semiconductors as shown here:

According to PatentPC, in 2023, the following nations were the highest producers of semiconductors: 

1.) Taiwan - 65 percent

2.) China 16 percent (aiming for 70 percent by 2030)

3.) South Korea - 20 percent

4.) United States - 12 percent

5.) Europe - 9 percent (aiming for 20 percent by 2030)

6.) Japan - 6 percent

India is also positioning itself as a future semiconductor manufacturing nation with government offering incentives to attract foreign chipmakers.

Again, you'll notice that Canada is not even mentioned in the list of the largest semiconductor manufacturing nations but yet it supposedly is the largest supplier of semiconductors to the United States.  Canada does have a semiconductor industry and is home to some of the world's largest semiconductor producers and designers like TSMC, Samsung Electronics, AMD, Qualcomm and Intel, however, the Canadian facilities are branch offices of these major foreign corporations.

So, where did Mark Carney get the idea that Canada is America's largest supplier of semicoducturos?  Who knows?  I would like to see proof of his assertions.  But it certainly would be nice to see the mainstream media fact check his pronouncements once in a while.  I guess that the lesson for all of us is that just because a former two-time central banker says something, doesn't necessarily make it accurate.

Addendum:

Since I posted this item, this announcement was released:

So, it's looking like the United States will be much less reliant on Canada's "massive supply" of semiconductors after all.  See, central bankers don't know everything despite what they would have us believe.

Mark Carney, CBDCs and the United States Dollar - Dealing with Donald Trump

For some reason or another, Canadians believe that Mark Carney is best suited to negotiate trade issues with Donald Trump.  This is likely due to the non-stop coverage that Canada's left-biased media has deluged Canadians with since Carney entered the race for replacement Liberal leader/Prime Minister in December 2024.  If we look back at comments that Carney made at a speech in 2019 which get no coverage on Canada's mainstream media, it would appear that Carney might well have an uphill battle with President Trump.

On August 23, 2019, Mark Carney in his role as Governor of the Bank of England gave this speech to the Jackson Hole Symposium, an annual gathering of central bankers, finance ministers and other economic experts from around the world:

In this rather mind numbingly boring and very technical speech, he delves into the international monetary and financial system (IMFS), focusing on how the current system challenges monetary policy.  He notes that the world economy is being reordered (thanks to the growing impact of the BRICS nations on the global economy) with the U.S. dollar remaining as important as it was when other currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar which was pegged to the price of gold ($35 per ounce) at the Bretton Woods meeting in 1944.  This was the case until 1971 when President Richard Nixon announced his New Economic Policy, suspending the conversion of the U.S. dollar into gold.

Carney states that there is a growing "destabilizing asymmetry" at the heart of the IMFS and, with the U.S. dollar's continuing importance to the economy, it is having a significant spillover into trade performance and financial conditions of emerging economies.  This makes it difficult for central bankers to provide the stimulus necessary to achieve their objectives and, as a result, there is a growing risk of a global economic slowdown. To summarize his comments, the near-zero interest rate policies adopted by the central bankers of the United States and other advanced economies made it nearly impossible for them to lower rates further. 

 Here is a quote:

"Today, the combination of heightened economic policy uncertainty, outright protectionism and concerns that further, negative shocks could not be adequately offset because of limited policy space is exacerbating the disinflationary bias in the global economy.

What then must be done? In the short term, central bankers must play the cards they have been dealt as best they can."

He then states that central bankers need to "change the (reserve currency) game" in the new multipolar  international monetary and financial system and that (with my bolds):

"When change comes, it shouldn’t be to swap one currency hegemon for another. Any unipolar system is unsuited to a multi-polar world. We would do well to think through every opportunity, including those presented by new technologies, to create a more balanced and effective system."

Note the use of the words "new technologies".  We will see what those are later in this posting.

Now, let's see what he has to say about the U.S. dollar (again with my bolds):

"The dollar represents the currency of choice for at least half of international trade invoices, around five times greater than the US’s share in world goods imports, and three times its share in world exports.  The resulting stickiness of import prices in dollar terms means exchange rate pass-through for changes in the dollar is high regardless of the country of export and import, while pass-through of non-dominant currencies is negligible. As a result, import prices do not adjust efficiently to reflect changes in relative demand between trading partners, in part because expenditure switching effects are curtailed, and global trade volumes are heavily influenced by the strength of the US dollar....

Huge network effects mean the dollar has remained dominant in the IMFS despite the transformation of the global economy. At the time of the Latin American debt crisis, EMEs made up a little more than one third of global GDP. Since the last Fed tightening cycle, their share of global activity had risen from around 45% to 60%. By 2030, it is projected to rise to around three quarters.

As well as being the dominant currency for the invoicing and settling of international trade, the US dollar is the currency of choice for securities issuance and holdings, and reserves of the official sector. Two-thirds of both global securities issuance and official foreign-exchange reserves are denominated in dollars. The same proportion of EME foreign currency external debt is denominated in dollars and the dollar serves as the monetary anchor in countries accounting for two thirds of global GDP.

Basically, Carney blames the U.S. dollar for the woes in the global economy.    You'll note that he stated that in "changing the game" when it comes to new reserve currencies to replace the U.S. dollar, new technologies must be considered.  What are these new technologies?  Here you go:

"The Bank of England and other regulators have been clear that unlike in social media (and its attempts to create new payment systems like Facebook and Libra/Diem), for which standards and regulations are only now being developed after the technologies have been adopted by billions of users, the terms of engagement for any new systemic private payments system must be in force well in advance of any launch.

As a consequence, it is an open question whether such a new Synthetic Hegemonic Currency (SHC) would be best provided by the public sector, perhaps through a network of central bank digital currencies.

Even if the initial variants of the idea prove wanting, the concept is intriguing. It is worth considering how an SHC in the IMFS could support better global outcomes, given the scale of the challenges of the current IMFS and the risks in transition to a new hegemonic reserve currency like the Renminbi.

An SHC could dampen the domineering influence of the US dollar on global trade."

He also notes that the most likely candidate for a replacement reserve currency is China's Renminbi but that it still has a way to go before it becomes truly a global reserve currency.  This is very noteworthy given that the Trump Administration appears to be viewing China as their "foe of choice".

So, given that Mark Carney believes that the issuance of central bank digital currencies (aka a Synthetic Hegemonic Currency) are necessary to reduce the global reliance on the U.S. dollar as the "hegemonic reserve currency" and that China's Renminbi is the heir apparent in a multi-reserve currency world, I wonder how Donald Trump will view a Prime Minister Carney, particularly given that one of his Executive Orders banned the development and use of a central bank digital currency in the United States and that his core belief is to make America the great sole superpower that it was prior to the rapidly developing multipolar reality of today.