William Watson: Does Carney’s 'round the world every 44 days' really help Canada?
- Tony Lam
- 23 hours ago
- 4 min read
Modern national leaders spend lots of their time flying. Do grip-and-grins at international meetings really improve their citizens' lives?
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Published Nov 25, 2025
Last updated 4 days ago
4 minute read
Re-printed without permission.
Keir Starmer, the increasingly hapless British prime minister, travels abroad so much that his nickname is “Never-here Keir.” People figure the collapse in his popularity after his election sweep just 16 months ago is so unenjoyable he prefers to stay away.
One of soon-to-be ex-Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s complaints about Donald Trump is that he should “Park Air Force One” and get back to tending to the needs of the MAGA people who elected him, whom she speaks for and who don’t care for foreign entanglements. Or foreigners, really.
Justin Trudeau used to get in trouble for flights of hypocrisy, and hypocritical flights, advising us all to get around on bio-degradable ox carts while himself jetting about like a crazed water bug. One especially frenetic spring he logged 38,000 kilometres in 38 days, just 2,000 kilometres short of around the world. How delicious that Canada’s biggest climate crusader had Canada’s biggest carbon footprint.
And Mark Carney? First thing he did as prime minister was leave the country, flying off to London and Paris for symbolic photo ops in this country’s two oldest “old countries.” And, though not as breathlessly sanctimonious a climate crusader as Trudeau, he’s been burning jet fuel ever since.
The PMO website produces a daily “media advisory” saying where the boss will be the next day. For Carney it only goes back to May 2, though he took office March 14. Matching up his daily locations with an online distance calculator, I figure he flew almost 190,000 kilometres in the 206 days between May 2 and Nov. 24. The Earth’s circumference being 40,075 kilometres, that’s 4.7 times around the world — once every 44 days. Not a match for Trudeau’s 38 days, but not far off.
He’s made nine foreign trips — 10 if you count Kananaskis, in Alberta. Alberta still being in Canada, that was technically domestic, but it was to host the G7. Most of his miles (113,137 kilometres not counting Kananaskis) have been foreign. But that leaves about 77,000 kilometres within Canada, which is almost twice around the world.
Since May 2, he’s been to: Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto, Kananaskis, Calgary (June 18), Calgary (July 4-5), Hamilton (Ont.), Huntsville (Ont.), Fort Smith (N.W.T.), Inuvik, Bathurst (N.B.), Prince Edward Island, Vancouver, Nanaimo, West Kelowna, Trenton, Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), St. John’s, Edmonton, GTA, Niagara Region, Kitchener (Ont.), Brampton (Ont.), Durham Region (Ont.), GTA, Fredericton, Terrace (B.C.), Deux-Montagnes (Que.), Montreal and Winnipeg, to be booed at the Grey Cup.
Since May 2, he’s been to: Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto, Kananaskis, Calgary (June 18), Calgary (July 4-5), Hamilton (Ont.), Huntsville (Ont.), Fort Smith (N.W.T.), Inuvik, Bathurst (N.B.), Prince Edward Island, Vancouver, Nanaimo, West Kelowna, Trenton, Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), St. John’s, Edmonton, GTA, Niagara Region, Kitchener (Ont.), Brampton (Ont.), Durham Region (Ont.), GTA, Fredericton, Terrace (B.C.), Deux-Montagnes (Que.), Montreal and Winnipeg, to be booed at the Grey Cup.
“If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium” was the title of an ancient comedy. There must be Tuesdays when our prime minister feels the same way. In 1776, just before the British hanged American patriot Nathan Hale for spying, he supposedly declared he regretted he had only “one life to lose for my country.” The modern national leader may regret he only has 300,000 kilometres a year to give to his country.
Mind you, prime ministerial air travel is different from yours and mine. The plane waits until he’s ready and goes as soon as he is. He doesn’t have to worry about his phone dying before his ticket’s scanned. He can misplace his passport with no consequences. He doesn’t have to remember whether at this airport he takes off his shoes or his belt or both to get through the full-body scan. He doesn’t have to wrestle his carry-ons and coat and suit jacket into the trays as people in line behind him roll their eyes at his clumsiness. On the plane, snacks and drinks are all complimentary, the food is better and he eats when he wants to. If the guy next to him starts crowding into his seat space, well, he’d better back off quick.
Still, even with the perks, that’s a lot of flying to do for your country. Is it really worth it?
Much of the domestic travel isn’t really for his country, it’s for his party and his own political interest. He needs to see and be seen, especially be seen handing out money — with artful, curated tableaux behind him, usually including single-use bespoke logos and screens.
Moreover, Marjorie Taylor Greene may be wrong (not an astonishing possibility): Parking Air Force One and having the president stay home may not actually solve citizens’ problems. Just the opposite, in fact. You don’t have to be overly cynical (just reasonably cynical) to believe many current problems are a result of governments trying to better our lives. Best to address them with benign governmental neglect. If that’s easier with the national leader off playing at global problem-solving, so be it.
Finally, there’s the question of what good the foreign trips do. I don’t actually begrudge Carney the one-day 18,000-kilometre return flight to Sharm el-Sheikh last month to celebrate the advent of peace in the Middle East — finally, after three or four millennia, a civilizational transformation! It was obviously a command performance and it wouldn’t do to snub Donald Trump by not attending.
But all these other half hours grabbed in the corridors and ante-rooms at international conferences? Trump said he didn’t go to the G20 in Johannesburg because of genocide against Afrikaners. More likely he simply figured “What’s the point?” Never having sat in on a summit, I buy that face time between leaders can be important. But once they know each other, it’s just another meeting. And meetings are like much of what government does: lots of input, output doubtful.
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