Carney says he knows new riding well, flubs neighbourhood name-drop

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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says he knows his suburban Ottawa riding well but could evidently use some brushing up on its geography.

“I know Nepean well… from Barrhaven to Bells Corners and in between,” said Carney, when asked Sunday why he chose to run in the district, located southwest of downtown Ottawa.

One issue with the prime minister’s answer is that Bells Corners falls entirely outside of Nepean’s boundaries, after being transferred to neighbouring Kanata in the 2022 federal redistribution.

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Greg Kung, the Conservative party’s candidate for Kanata, was one of a handful of locals who picked up on Carney’s geographical flub right away.

“Did you bother looking at a map of your riding? Bells Corners is not in your riding,” Kung chided Carney in a post on social media platform X.

Barbara Bal, the Conservative candidate for Nepean, who will be going head-to-head against Carney in the April 28 vote, was quick to join the dogpile.

Bal posted a clip of the offending soundbite overlaid with the caption, “Did Mark Carney just say that Bells Corners is in Nepean?”

The prime minister also struggled to explain why the party disqualified longtime Liberal MP for Nepean Chandra Arya from the race, after green-lighting his candidacy in the past three federal elections.

Arya was tossed from the Liberal leadership race earlier this year after creating a stir with his refusal to learn French.

“Mr. Arya, as you know, was disqualified from the leadership race… because of certain factors, that informed the decision, it’s my understanding, of the (party) to recommend that he be disqualified as a candidate in Nepean,” said Carney.

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