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Former PM Harper blasts Liberal leadership candidate Carney's economic record

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Stephen Harper is taking shots at Liberal leadership frontrunner Mark Carney's economic record.
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Former prime minister Stephen Harper delivers the keynote address at a conference on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 in Ottawa. Harper is taking shots at Liberal leadership frontrunner Mark Carney's economic record. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Stephen Harper is taking shots at Liberal leadership frontrunner Mark Carney's economic record.

Harper accuses Carney of taking unearned credit for steering the Canadian economy out of the global financial crisis more than 15 years ago.

While Harper appointed Carney to run the Bank of Canada at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, he says it was then-finance minister Jim Flaherty who made the "hard calls."

Harper makes the attacks in a letter attached to a Conservative Party fundraising email.

He argues that Carney does not have experience with managing the Canadian economy on a daily basis and says the man he appointed to run the central bank has been "wrong on all the big issues."

Harper's attack comes less than a week before the Liberal party meets in Ottawa on March 9 to choose its new leader.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2025.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press