Chantal Hébert

Chantal, how do you see it?

Yes, Mark Carney, in theory, is passing the torch as the outgoing chair of the last G7 to the current one.

But I think there's another passing of torch and it goes in the other direction.

Emmanuel Macron is on his way out.

He has run as many terms as he is allowed.

And it may be their last meeting of the kind, certainly his last G7.

But when you look at the G6, I'm excluding Donald Trump,

I think there will be a vacuum that Mark Carney is more likely to fill as one of the leading voices of the G6 than any of the others.

And why do I say that?

in part because he has one of the longest runways to a re-election bid because he only was elected last year and by virtue of his acquired majority, he's got three years ahead of him, which makes him one that is likely to see the end of this Trump term and whatever comes next.

But also,

If you look at Canada versus the other five, and I'm going to set Japan aside because its geopolitical reality is very different from that of the others.

Italy, Germany, France, the UK.

are all contending with extreme right parties that are on the rise and that for the most part have, as part of their bread and butter, anti-immigration policies.

That also makes Mark Carney stand out as he, yes, has opposition on the left and the right, but it is more normal

opposition than what has been going on in Europe.

Certainly Pierre Poilievre is not going around saying the kind of things that the right is saying, the extreme right in the UK or in Italy.

So by virtue of his current political capital, by virtue of the current Canadian situation, which is difficult but is not leading to the kind of polarization so far that we've seen in Europe or even in the US, I think that

means that Mark Carney's role in the so-called G6 is going to become larger over time, rather than just this side player.

Because for those who weren't around, and we were, Canada ended up in the G7 as an add-on to the initial plans, and mostly out of its friendship with France and the UK.