Lately Mark Carney has profited from firmly ditching his predecessors’ policies. At the start of the year, during his campaign to run the Liberal Party, he promised to throw out the consumer-facing portion of Canada’s carbon tax and backed smoothly away from progressive positions that had been miring the Liberals in culture wars. This made him look pragmatic and serious. It helped him win the party leadership and take the Liberals to an unprecedented fourth term in power.