Poilievre tells Carney to sell assets after disclosing 103 potential conflicts of interest

Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to sell off his assets and explain why he misled Canadians about potential conflicts of interest.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to sell off his assets and explain why he misled Canadians about potential conflicts of interest, following an ethics disclosure revealing a record number of investments from which he must recuse himself.

The federal ethics disclosure, released Friday, shows that Carney holds 103 assets that pose potential conflicts, an unprecedented number for a sitting prime minister. During the election campaign, Carney repeatedly claimed he had no such conflicts.

Poilievre accused Carney of misleading the public and demanded that the prime minister place all of his assets into a “completely blind” arrangement.

“That is the spirit of a blind trust. A blind trust is meant to be something that the owner does not know anything about. That’s what it means to be blind of the assets,” Poilievre said in Ottawa Monday. “But right now, Mr. Carney is clearly not blind of what he holds, because even we know what he holds due to this disclosure, and this will put him in an impossible position where he will be conflicted at every turn.”

Poilievre warned that Carney will either need to recuse himself multiple times every cabinet meeting or risk influencing decisions that could benefit his own financial portfolio.

“Neither of those possibilities is acceptable. And so again, we call for him to explain the falsehoods, sell his holdings and the conflicts for Canadians,” he added. “We have a prime minister who is going to be constantly distracted by his private interests when the public interest is in such desperate need of attention.”

Poilievre noted several times during the campaign that Carney claimed he had no connection to Brookfield Asset Management, had no conflicts of interest and had no investments.

“We finally got a look at the Prime Minister’s many financial interests, interests that he kept carefully hidden throughout the election, and about which he told numerous falsehoods during that same campaign,” Poilievre said in Ottawa Monday. “Mr. Carney was not up front or honest with Canadians during the election. He made numerous false statements, statements he would have known were false when he made them.”

Poilievre said the disclosure revealed a “cornucopia of conflicts of interest” the likes of which have never been seen in a prime minister of Canada.

During the election, Carney claimed he owned nothing but cash and personal real estate, lashed out at reporters who asked if he had potential conflicts of interest. He also lauded the fact that he was following the conflict of interest, but refused to proactively disclose his now confirmed over 100 conflicted assets during the election.

“He knowingly owned 574 stocks and deferred profits and stock options in Brookfield and other companies,” Poilievre said. “So it was patently and now provably false for him to say he won’t nothing but cash and real estate.”

Poilievre said Carney’s claim that his assets were in a blind trust and he was unaware of what was held in the trust was also a lie, as the public now knows what investments he held, which were divested into it. Some of the assets could be divested rather than placed in the blind trust.

Carney also claimed during the election that he had no connection to Brookfield after entering the Liberal leadership race. However, the disclosure revealed that he still held continuing stock options and deferred share units with Brookfield Asset Management, which cannot be easily sold.

Poilievre further claimed Carney was untrustworthy, as he had “shown in the past” his alleged willingness to use political connections for his own profit, including endorsing Westinghouse, a nuclear energy company listed in his disclosure, and giving billions of dollars for modular homes and subsidizing heat pumps – all companies in which Brookfield Asset Management invests.

Carney’s investments have also garnered media criticism for his abundance of American investments, and noticeably lacking investments in Canadian industry in comparison.