The Cost of Loyalty

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Canada in 2025 feels heavier. More expensive. More uncertain. More divided. For many Afro-Indo-Caribbean Canadians, it feels like we’re still waiting for the promise made decades ago to be fulfilled.

That promise began in the 1960’s and 70’s when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s immigration reforms opened the doors to the Caribbean. It was a pivotal shift, one that many families still speak about with gratitude. It brought nurses, teachers, skilled tradespeople, and students who built the foundation of what is now a culturally rich African-Caribbean and South Asian Canadian population.

The thing is, gratitude is not a policy, and memories are not solutions.

Today, the economic, political, and social realities of Canada demand that we — especially the Afro-Indo-Caribbean community — look clearly at where we are, how we got here, and whether the Liberal Party of today still serves our future.

The News: Canada in Crisis

From coast to coast, Canadians are grappling with compounding crises that touch every facet of life:

Housing is unaffordable for most. Tent cities have become permanent fixtures in urban areas. In Toronto and Vancouver, average people, let alone newcomers, are priced out, while short-term rentals and foreign investors scoop up property.

Groceries and gas are more expensive than ever. Inflation surged post-pandemic, and though it has cooled slightly, wages have not kept up. People feel poorer than they did five years ago, because they are.

“The thing is, gratitude is not a policy, and memories are not solutions”

Healthcare is overwhelmed. Millions are without a family doctor. Mental health services are inaccessible, or overloaded. Emergency rooms are closing. Wait times stretch dangerously long.

Crime and safety concerns have returned to the forefront — with visible increases in violence on public transit and in marginalized neighborhoods.

Immigration, though a pillar of Canadian identity, is under strain. Record numbers are arriving, but the systems to support them: housing, healthcare, job markets, are not.

Canadians are not just frustrated. We are losing trust. In politicians. In the media. Even in each other.

How We Got Here

There’s no single villain. The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to all nations, and Canada responded with massive emergency spending, but while the crisis faded, the spending didn’t stop, and measurable results didn’t follow.

The Trudeau government, in power since 2015, leaned into progressive branding: gender equity, Indigenous reconciliation, carbon pricing, multiculturalism, but critics argue these were more slogans than solutions.

The ArriveCAN app scandal, WE Charity fallout, and broken promises on electoral reform and housing have all chipped away at public confidence.

What is looming behind much of this? Canada’s debt — now over $1.2 trillion federally, and some of the highest household debt in the G7.

Still Liberal After All These Years?

So why, with all this, do so many Afro-Indo-Caribbean Canadians still lean Liberal? Some say it’s fear of the alternative. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre strikes many as: too abrasive, too dismissive of systemic issues, too eager to slash.

Others point to Liberal social values — protection of LGBTQ+ rights, multiculturalism, and social equity as a reason to stay. Some feel the NDP-Liberal alliance offers balance, keeping the Liberals in check.

Community, please realize that loyalty isn’t a substitute for power, and sentiment cannot take the place of strategy.

The Mark Carney Question

Enter Mark Carney, a man with global polish, a golden resume, and serious establishment backing. Former Governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, Vice Chair of Brookfield.

To many in Bay Street and Davos, he looks like the perfect solution: steady, smart, scandal-free, but for communities like ours — Brampton, Jane & Finch, Little Jamaica, Malvern — he’s not a solution. He’s a symbol. A symbol of elite governance over grassroots voice. Of market-based climate policy over people-first community economics.

He talks about carbon pricing, central bank digital currencies, and ESG investing, tools that sound progressive, but often raise costs for working-class families.

Mark Carney is not an elected leader. He’s a technocrat. He is the ultimate technocrat — educated at Harvard and Oxford, trained at Goldman Sachs, and elevated to lead central banks in two different countries.

He believes in data-driven governance, but that often means governance by unelected experts and markets not by people, communities, or grassroots input. His leadership style leans toward elite consensus, not lived experience.

Brilliant, yes, but not for the people. He has never run for office, never worked in our schools, or shelters, never advocated within our health systems, or housing boards. He has never been tested by voters. Yet, his influence looms large.

At his core, a monetary hawk. His solution to inflation is usually higher interest rates and tighter public spending, which disproportionately hurts low-income renters, small businesses, and racialized communities. Yes! Us unfortunately.

Who is he “in bed” with Financially and Ideologically?

• Brookfield Asset Management: One of the world’s largest real estate and infrastructure investors. Carney is Vice-Chair. They’ve been accused of driving up housing prices by scooping up public assets.
• Goldman Sachs: His first employer famous for betting against the same assets they sold during the 2008 crash.
• World Economic Forum (Davos crowd): Carney is part of this elite global club pushing digital currencies, centralized climate strategies, and AI governance often with little public input.

Mark Carney was Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He was the first foreigner to ever hold the post. Critics say:

• London housing exploded under his tenure, making the city unaffordable for regular people. (Sounds familiar?)
• He propped up markets but did little to fix the root causes of inequality.
• The working class saw no benefit from the “recovery” he helped manage.

Britain exited the Carney era with higher inequality, corporate dominance, and fragile trust in financial elites.

Sound familiar again?

What We Must Watch

The Afro-Indo-Caribbean community cannot afford to be passive at this moment. Too many policies are being shaped without us and used against us.

1. Beware of “Innovation” That Hurts

Digital currencies, AI in policing and education, and climate gentrification are being framed as progress, but these can easily become tools of control, or displacement. We must ask: Who sets the terms? Who benefits?

2. Scrutinize Climate Policy

We want climate action, but not if it pushes us out of our neighborhoods in the name of green development. “Smart cities” sound sleek, but there is a more insidious agenda attached to them. Our reporter Michael Thomas has spoken extensively about Smart Cities, and I suggest you check out some of his articles. What you read will frighten you.

3. Push for Community Wealth

Our communities are rich in hustle but poor in capital. We need investment in Black- and Brown-led ventures, community banks, and entrepreneurial grants that don’t come with strings or gatekeepers.

What We Should Demand

This election cycle, our voices must be sharper. Our expectations, higher.

• True Representation: Not just “diversity hires” but candidates who come from and still live in our realities.
• Real Accountability: Don’t settle for empty promises or identity politics. Demand numbers, plans, and timelines.
• Community Power: Fund schools, clinics, housing co-ops — not just climate summits and consultant contracts.

The Liberal Party may still tell a good story, and Mark Carney may look like the safest pair of hands, but we don’t need to be safe — we need to be seen. We need to be heard.

Mark Carney may speak about stabilizing the economy, but ask yourself, whose economy? Who gets left out in the name of “progress”?

This isn’t about being anti-Liberal, or pro-Conservative. It’s about being pro-community. It’s about refusing to be anyone’s guaranteed vote. It’s about shaping a future that doesn’t just include us but is built with us.

If we don’t get strategic now, we’ll be spoken for instead of spoken with, and the cost of that silence? Generational.