Mark Carney once provided the last line of defense for the Harvard Crimson hockey team.
As the back-up goalie — and often the back-up to the back-up — Carney spent most of each season on the bench. But teammate Mark Benning recalls one critical playoff game sometime in the mid-80s when Carney, sent onto the ice to replace an injured player, stopped all shots from the opposing team.
“I never saw any time where he cracked under pressure,” said Benning, a venture capital executive still friends with Carney.
Some 40 years later, now as Canada’s prime minister, Carney finds himself back in the rink, this time against the world’s most formidable opposition: President Donald Trump, flanked by the $30 trillion US economy.
On Saturday, Carney rejected a trade deal with the United States after Trump officials made 11th-hour demands that, among other outcomes, would’ve limited Canada’s freedom to cut deals with other nations. Red lines crossed, Carney vowed dollar-for-dollar tariffs on American goods entering Canada, some as high as 50%.
