You had one job, Mark Carney

“You had one job.”

In mainstream culture, the first known use of the phrase happened 25 years ago, in a remake of the comedy heist film Ocean’s Eleven.

The character played by Don Cheadle and his team of robbers set off some explosives to open a big safe. The door pops open, and a delighted Cheadle dances into the vault. As he does so, an alarm goes off. Says an irritated Cheadle to his colleagues: “You tossers! You had one job to do!”

That, or “you had one job,” entered the popular consciousness after that. The Internet is now awash in memes of people doing dumb things, or failing spectacularly, followed by the “you had one job” line. Like in Cheadle’s movie, it’s funny.

It’s not particularly amusing in the case of Mark Carney, however.

The Prime Minister had one job, too.  He was the one who told us what it was. In his very first speech as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he said: “I pledge to you, and to all Canadians, that I will work day and night with one purpose: to build a stronger Canada for everyone.”

That’s pretty clear. Earlier, during the abbreviated Liberal leadership race, he was equally specific, and zeroed in, repeatedly, on U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs and threats to annex Canada. Said Carney: “We’ll fight back.”

That was his one job: to fight back, and build a stronger Canada. His words, not ours.

In the intervening year or so, it’s become pretty clear that Mark Carney hasn’t really done that. His partisans will object, of course, and insist that their leader is still breathing the rarefied air of polling popularity because he’s been successful. If he’s failed, they’ll say, why is he so popular?

The answer: Mark Carney is popular only because he looks better than the competition - Donald Trump and Trump-lite, Pierre Poilievre. When objectively measured against his accomplishments, Mark Carney is found wanting.  He has not fulfilled his one job requirement, written by himself.

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