Expositor sales manager takes writer to task
To the Expositor:
It’s been painfully obvious for some time now that certain editorial writers have beehives in their bonnets when it comes to the federal Conservative leader, The Honourable Pierre Poilievre. In their latest screed against all things Conservative (‘The saga of the Trump tariffs continues to astound and amaze,’ October 29, 2025), the quill-driver in question chose to insert a question mark after the word Loyal in reference to Mr. Poilievre’s official title, unsubtly suggesting that Mr. Poilievre is somehow disloyal to Canada for doing his job as the official Leader of the Opposition.
While disagreement over policy is fair game and free speech is still somewhat protected in Canada, ad hominem attacks questioning the loyalty of a duly elected member of parliament, without any justification or proof whatsoever, should be beneath the dignity of the editorial pages in this newspaper. With all due respect, perhaps the writer(s) could spill more ink assessing the performance (or lack thereof) of the current government in power.
Having said that, let’s take a moment and apply a brief loyalty litmus test to Mark Carney, coroneted leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and head of a precarious minority government.
Up until this year, Carney held three citizenships: British, Irish and oh yes, Canadian. In addition to his puzzling triad of citizenship, Carney’s professional resume is distinctly un-Canadian. Eschewing university studies in Canada, he chose to spend his academic career at Harvard and Oxford.
Following graduation, he worked for Goldman Sachs, an American investment bank headquartered in New York City, in their Boston, London, New York, and Tokyo offices. After a brief stint as Governor of the Bank of Canada, he departed to presumably greener pastures as the Governor of the Bank of England. Carney also worked at and led Brookfield Asset Management, a global private equity firm, formerly headquartered in Toronto but moved to New York City under Carney’s watch. He was appointed Chairman in 2022, the highest office in the company. This is where it gets really interesting.
According to the Toronto Star and Canadians for Tax Fairness calculations, Canada lost out on an estimated $5.3 billion in tax revenue due to Brookfield’s tax avoidance schemes during Carney’s tenure. That’s probably enough money to pay for a six-lane bridge across the North Channel, build a hospital in every town on Manitoulin and eliminate property taxes for every homeowner on the island for decades.
Most of Brookfield’s core operations, responsible for about $50 billion in revenue, are registered in Bermuda, a well-known tax haven. Even the CBC reported that the two investment funds personally managed by Carney were registered in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes. Carney himself acknowledged that these funds, whose “offices” are located above a bicycle shop, were registered in Bermuda for tax reasons. Unbelievably, Brookfield paid zero tax between 2022 and 2024, while recording $1 billion in profits, according to SEC filings.
Given all of the above, I know whose loyalty to Canada I would question, and it’s not the Honorable Member for Battle River-Crowfoot.
Kevin Spikes
Honora Bay
EDITOR’S NOTE; The letter writer, Kevin Spikes, is also a valued employee of this newspaper. Editorials here are unsigned and so represent the paper’s opinion on a given topic at a given time. The Expositor equally values Mr. Spikes’ opinion and all others who take the time to agree or disagree with anything they read on this page in the interest of democratic dialogues.