Prime Minister Mark Carney withdraws reporters’ questions about his financial holdings at a press conference on Monday.
Carney announced last week that he had placed his financial assets in a blind trust fund to protect himself from any conflict of interest.
But that has not stopped conservatives from calling on the new prime minister to publicly disclose his financial holdings, suggesting that Canada may be on the campaign trail before publicly revealing Carney’s assets.
A Blind Trust means that Carney’s financial assets are handled by a trustee who has legal authority to manage them but is prohibited from seeking his input. Carney doesn’t know what’s in his blind trust portfolio, but before divesting, they will know what these assets are.
Under current government ethics rules aimed at preventing conflicts of interest, Carney has 60 days to disclose his assets to the Ethics Commissioner when he was sworn in, and another 60 days to make the information public.
Asked on Monday whether he should reveal his financial holdings before putting it into a blind trust, Carney said he had exceeded expectations from the current rules and held different standards.
“I follow the rules of the Ethics Commissioner, follow these processes and all the necessary things,” he said.
When the reporter put pressure on his assets, Carney delayed it a little, saying the questions depended on the assumption of “sick will.”
“Your question is an attempt to invent new rules. I have followed the rules set by the Parliament, … I will continue to follow these rules,” he said.
Conservative moral critic Michael Barrett wrote an open letter to Carney on Sunday calling on him to reveal his assets.
“Canadians should know that their prime minister is making decisions in national interest and make sure they do not have any influence from improper companies,” Barrett wrote.
Before entering politics, Carney served on the boards of prominent businesses, nonprofits and charities, including Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), one of Canada’s largest publicly traded companies.
According to company records, as of April 2024, Carney held approximately 41,000 deferred shares units (DSUs) and could cash BAM common stock on a later date. The stock is currently trading at about $82 per share, meaning these DSUs may be worth more than $3 million.
Carney also owned 303,049 stock options as of last year, which could be liquidated sometime in the next decade.
As of April last year, the company’s ratings of the options were $1.7 million, but they were worth a lot more than they did later.
