Elected people have learned one very important lesson: you don’t need to silence dissent if you can stage-manage it. You don’t have to crush the people outright, not when you can talk like a reformer while governing like a reactionary.
That’s the trick. Say what the people want to hear. Do what the powerful want you to do.
Enter Mark Carney.
Example 1 - Palestine: Condemn the Bombs, Ship the Bombs
Carney says Canada would arrest Netanyahu if he set foot here, in line with the ICC’s warrant for war crimes. He claims to recognize Palestine as a state. He even calls out the Israeli government for trying to “end any possibility” of Palestinian self-determination.
Fuck yeah!! Sounds brave, right?
But while Gaza is reduced to rubble, Canada continues to trade arms with Israel. No sanctions. No embargo. No serious consequence. The bloodshed is funded, the shipments go out and the applause rolls in.
This is what imperial complicity looks like when it's dressed in international law. The form of justice, with none of the substance.
Example 2 - Inequality: Market Morality as a Substitute for Redistribution
In his book Value(s), Carney tells us the market has lost its moral compass. He says we need fairness. Sustainability. Solidarity.
This is the sanitized language of elite reformism. “Solidarity” but never class struggle. “Fairness” but never expropriation. “Moral markets” as if exploitation can be cleaned up and made polite.
Meanwhile, the richest Canadians continue to get richer. There is no wealth tax. No serious crackdown on capital flight. No structural redistribution. Instead, we get infrastructure plans, trade acceleration, and more deregulation: the familiar toolkit of neoliberal governance, dressed up in moral vocabulary.
It's capitalism with better manners. Nothing more.
Spolier alert: Here’s the real magic trick:
Say what’s popular.
Do what’s profitable.
Call it progress.
Carney does not govern against public opinion, he governs despite it, and thrives because he cloaks elite-serving policies in people-pleasing language.
And why does it work?
Because too many of us still reward intentions instead of outcomes. We confuse eloquence for justice. We mistake theatre for change.
Let’s be clear: words are not resistance. Press conferences don’t feed people. Book tours don’t redistribute wealth. International law doesn’t stop bombs unless someone enforces it.
And Carney isn’t enforcing anything.
So here’s what we must do:
Don’t cheer when they say they’ll tax the rich.
Don’t praise symbolic recognition of Palestine while weapons still flow.
Don’t get suckered by a “values-based economy” that still serves the investor class.
We must withhold our applause, not out of cynicism, but out of discipline. Until we see the legislation passed, the wealth taxed, the bombs stopped, we say:
“Not good enough.”
This is how we hold power to account.
We don’t reward style.
We don’t reward promises.
We reward action. Only action.
Anything less is betrayal with a smile and we’ve had enough of that.