NEVER RULE IT OUT — Before JAGMEET SINGH ran for NDP leadership in 2017, he enjoyed about a year of headlines full of speculation and anticipation he would launch a federal leadership bid. Didn’t say he would until he did. Before JASON KENNEY ran for leadership of Alberta’s Conservatives in 2016, there was a long build up where he wouldn’t say which race he planned to enter — federal or provincial — and a curious, decisive dinner party former Harper adviser TOM FLANAGAN mused about to CBC. The result: Swaths of earned media — which is how communications pros refer to stories they get in the news, different from paid ads — floating his name as a potential top contender for whichever race he decided to enter. Then there’s MARK CARNEY, who has been at this game for a long while now, even when he apparently didn’t want to be. — Déjà vu all over again: Think back to 2012, when the Liberals were seeking to replace MICHAEL IGNATIEFF, Carney was taking calls urging a leadership bid and attracting familiar headlines like, “Can the Liberals really snag Mark Carney for leader?” A Globe story from later that year said in a postmortem that while top Liberals had billed him as “the perfect alternative to Justin Trudeau,” he actively tried to kill the speculation because he was still at the Bank of Canada. He eventually left to run the Bank of England and that ended that. — Fast-forward: In 2021, the will-he-won’t-he chatter really came roaring back to the delight of blue Liberals back when he addressed the Liberal convention in a virtual appearance. A couple months later, CATHERINE MCKENNAvacated her seat — presenting an opening where he could run. He did not. But the hunger for Carney speculation justdoesn’t stop as Trudeau trails badly in the polls. The latest has been driven by Trudeau acknowledging that he’s tried to convince Carney for years to enter politics, and that they even met recently. Some leaky MPs are calling for a Cabinet shuffle to shake things up and like the idea of Carney coming into the fold. ZITA ASTRAVAS of Wellington Advocacy and former Trudeau PMO staffer tells Playbook she smiles when she sees some of the Cabinet shuffle speculation. “People who are talking to media about Cabinet shuffles are not the ones who are in the know,” she said. — Lips, sealed. Ink, spilled: It’s hard to see a week go by without Carney in the headlines, whether it’s rumored he’s a future leadership aspirant or ministerial material — even if little has changed since the previous week and he has yet to say much about the prospect. — Opposition boost: Carney has racked up 43 mentions in Question Period this Parliament, despite not being in Parliament. He’s frequently billed by various Conservative MPs and Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE as the next leader of the Liberal Party. They even want to haul him in front of committee. — Hype naysayers: SHEILA COPPS told PETER MAZEREEUW on The Hill Times’ “Hot Room” pod that Carney would just be a channel change from the real issues facing the party. Compass Rose Managing Director THEO ARGITIS likened all the speculation to a mirage. — Eyebrows raised: Former NDP staffer JAMES VALCKE of Viewpoints Research posted on X that Carney’s “earned media team is making whatever they're getting paid.” — Fills a void: SCOTT REID, a longtime Liberal organizer turned comms guru, said it’s a lot of media attention for a guy not in public office, but it’s not an unusual amount by historical standards for the lone outsider among rumored leadership aspirants who could be “Mr. Next.” But it’s also “not obvious that Carney’s running a de facto leadership campaign” or “how intense his interest” in electoral politics even is. There’s just no other story that’s been put on the table since the stunning Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election loss for the Liberals. — Noses up against the fishbowl: “It is restricted to people sitting around sipping cocktails and musing about who’s up, who’s down, will Carney run, should CHRYSTIA FREELAND be moved out — it’s all just salon gossip and doesn’t amount to a pinch of shit,” Reid told Playbook. — Swanning and fawning: “There’s more of a history in the Liberal Party than there is maybe in other parties of yearning for stars and leading candidates, leading figures who are going to step in and lead rescue missions,” said Conservative commentator TIM POWERS of Summa Strategies. “The Liberals like that narrative and I think Mark Carney fits the story-book character that they're looking for.” Carney’s also not pushing any of it away. “It's not a bad thing to be seen by many as a potential prime minister and reflects well on your leadership abilities, or at least that's the perception that it can benefit you in other places. I don't think Mark's doing it for that reason, but it doesn't hurt elsewhere to have people fawning over you.” | 
