Inside Mark Carney's leadership campaign launch: Teleprompter issues, mystery limo and an unexpected supporter
CBC
Mark Carney's official campaign launch for Liberal leader included high praise from supporters and some unexpected moments behind the scenes, including a glitchy Teleprompter, a mysterious limousine booking and police showing up on scene.
The launch took place at the Laurier Heights Community League in Edmonton in a hall that holds around 140 people. The indoor space sat next to the outdoor rink where Carney grew up playing hockey — a detail he spoke about in his speech while trying to emphasize his Western roots.
As organizers packed supporters into the room before Carney walked out, his father's former political opponent walked in and sat down in the front row of the crowd.
Douglas Roche, a former longtime Progressive Conservative MP, defeated Bob Carney, who ran for the Liberals in Edmonton-South in the 1980 federal election.
Roche told CBC News he showed up to back Carney because he's "extremely concerned with the future of this country."
"In my political experience, I've never seen such a challenge to the integrity and future of Canada," Roche said. "I think that Mark Carney is the one who can pull our country together and move forward."
Roche said incoming U.S. president Donald Trump has "challenged Canada like never before" and it will be a challenge to pull back the "political pendulum" that's swinging right. He said the country would be well served with Carney as prime minister because of his deep understanding of economics.
As Carney's speech got underway and he made his pitch to Liberals about why, despite not being the "usual suspect" when it comes to politics, he thinks he can win the next election and take on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, his Teleprompter crashed more than once.
CBC News saw the prompter rebooting and quickly scrolling through his speech multiple times to try and catch up to where he was. During the glitches, Carney looked down at his notes and seemed to pace himself while the text caught up.
Some, like Sebastian Perez with the University of Alberta Young Liberal Chapter, responded positively to Carney's slower delivery, calling the speech "very heartfelt."
"Especially because right now there's a lot of fast-paced energy going around," Perez said. "And especially like even just his tone of voice really helped smooth things down. I think he's one of the smartest people in the room."
The prompter was just one glitch at the launch. Before the doors opened, a white limousine outfitted to look like a Rolls-Royce pulled up in the parking lot as journalists waited outside.
The driver said he was picking someone up, but didn't know who. After about five minutes facing questions and video cameras, the driver slowly backed out of the lot.
The limo company later told CBC News they have no idea who booked the vehicle and all they had was the requester's phone number and they repeatedly didn't pick up.
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