‘The story is wrong’: Liberal caucus chair defends Carney amid reports of yelling at MPs

Liberal Caucus Chair James Maloney is vehemently denying the prime minister has a caucus management problem, pushing back on reporting from this week citing unnamed Liberal MPs accusing Mark Carney of being dismissive of the concerns they were raising, and yelling.

Several MPs told the Toronto Star this week that Carney has a penchant for lashing out at caucus members, centralizing power, and ignoring their concerns.

“Absolutely false,” Maloney told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, when asked specifically about the accusation cited in the Toronto Star that Carney “punches down at caucus all the time.”

“When I read that two nights ago, I had a variety of emotional reactions,” Maloney also said, in the interview airing Sunday. “One of them was concern, one of them was anger, one was great disappointment, because it’s just, it’s not true. Absolutely not true.”

Pressed on what motivations caucus members could have for airing their complaints to a media outlet if the accusations are unfounded, Maloney said, for context, he “serve(s) at the pleasure of the caucus.” He also later said if an MP has concerns about feeling dismissed during a caucus meeting, that “falls on (him).”

“I was elected as caucus chair by the MPs in that room, so my job and my responsibility is to them and to (Carney), because he’s a member of caucus,” Maloney said. “Look: the story is wrong. I’m sorry, the story is wrong.”

He added he’s “never” heard Carney yell.

“My job as caucus chair is to make sure we have a safe environment where people, MPs, the prime minister and cabinet ministers can voice their opinions,” he said, adding meetings involve “wide-ranging discussions on a wide-ranging number of topics,” and he would never divulge what happens in caucus meetings because “what happens in that room is sacred.”

Maloney called the reporting “factually incorrect,” when asked whether MPs have approached him to voice their concerns about Carney’s leadership style, and when pressed on MPs potentially perceiving the tone in caucus meetings differently than he does.

“I can’t speak to the minds of every member of caucus,” he said. “Whether you’re speaking to a minister or the prime minister, anybody else, it’s a process. Sometimes people react to it differently.”

“Some people are more comfortable doing it than others,” he added. “I’ll say this over and over again, it is a safe space.”

‘Disagreement doesn’t mean dissent’: Maloney on Guilbeault exit

Kapelos also asked Maloney about the resignation of former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault, who announced late last month he’s leaving politics entirely, and pointing to Carney’s backsliding on climate policy as the primary reason why.

In an interview on CTV Power Play at the time, Guilbeault also told Kapelos he’s not the only caucus member who’s upset with the Liberals’ environmental policy shift since last year’s election.

“Disagreement doesn’t mean dissent,” Maloney said, when pressed by Kapelos on whether he’d concede there’s dissent in the Liberal caucus, when factoring Guilbeault’s comments.

“There were lots of times over the last 10 years when the government was doing something that wasn’t the way I would do it, or wasn’t something that I agreed with completely,” he added. “But as I also said to you two weeks ago, we go into that room, we exchange views, and we come out on the same team.”

Asked whether he is downplaying Guilbeault’s exit, Maloney insisted he wasn’t and said the former environment minister “left for his own personal reasons.”

Maloney insisted the Liberal caucus is cohesive and called Carney a “great leader” who “values the input” of his MPs.

You can watch Liberal Caucus Chair James Maloney’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.