Harper says he offered Carney a job, but not finance

OTTAWA – Former prime minister Stephen Harper says he offered Mark Carney, then the governor of the Bank of Canada, a role in his Conservative government in 2012, though not as finance minister, at least not right away, according to his new memoir.

In “Here for Canada: Memoirs of the 22nd Prime Minister,” released Tuesday, Harper writes that he told Carney the finance post was already filled but indicated he would be the leading candidate if it became vacant.

“Obviously, I did not offer him the post of minister of finance, as it was then not available. However, I indicated that, if he chose to join the government, he would be the leading candidate should the post come open,” Harper writes.

Carney said in a CBC interview during the 2025 Liberal leadership race that Harper had asked him in 2012 whether he would be his finance minister. Carney said at the time it would not have been appropriate to go directly from the Bank of Canada governorship into party politics.

Harper writes that his finance minister, Jim Flaherty, was increasingly worried after the 2011 election that Carney was nurturing political ambitions and might seek the Liberal leadership, something widely rumoured then. Harper says he raised it with his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who suggested a job offer would either secure Carney’s services or force him to rule out a Liberal leadership bid.

“Mark took some time to reflect on the opportunity, ultimately declaring that he should stay out of partisan politics,” Harper writes. Carney left soon afterward to lead the Bank of England.

The Carney episode is a small aside in a memoir of nearly 650 pages. Harper says he addressed it because it has “occasionally cropped up in the media.” Carney, now prime minister, was in Antigua this week for a Commonwealth leaders’ meeting, while his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, has been defending the coming federal budget.

The book covers Harper’s time in politics from uniting the right under the modern Conservative party through a decade in government. It includes a first-person account of his final election campaign and the 2015 defeat.

Harper writes that he considered stepping down as leader in the summer of 2014 to renew the party. After deciding to stay, he planned to serve until just after the 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1, 2017, then call a leadership race.

He also writes that he learned of the Conservatives’ proposed “barbaric cultural practices hotline” only while preparing for the French leaders’ debate in Montreal, when the news “flashed across my screen.” The tip line was announced by then-cabinet ministers Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander. Harper says he was “furious” because he had not been consulted, and he had to defend the policy on the campaign trail.

The memoir also describes face-to-face standoffs with Russian President Vladimir Putin at G8 meetings, Harper’s reaction to the 2008 parliamentary crisis, when opposition parties tried and failed to form a coalition to oust the Conservatives, and his experience during the 2014 shooting on Parliament Hill, when he was without his usual protective detail.

On current matters, Harper writes that if he were prime minister today he would end Canada’s participation in the World Economic Forum. He attended the Davos gathering twice while in office and now describes it as a once-useful forum that has become a club for advancing the “narrow interests of its globalist, elitist attendees.”

This story is based on reporting by The Canadian Press, first published Nov. 3, 2026: In new memoir, Harper says he offered Carney a job but not finance minister.

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