Carney’s Holiday Moment of Triumph Masks a Tenuous Grip on Power

Mark Carney took the stage at a holiday event last week in a jubilant mood. He had just scored a political victory, and he was eager to make some theater of it.

“Some of you, and I salute you, have been Liberals your whole life,” the Canadian prime minister told the assembled group of elected officials and staffers. “Some may have just joined our party — like, literally, just joined our party.” Then he pointed to his right, where Michael Ma, a lawmaker whom he had just recruited from the opposition Conservatives, was about to enter to a standing ...