The courtship by Justin Trudeau of financial guru Mark Carney is finally seeing them in a political embrace.

The union, however, can be expected to end in tears as it has for other smart, competent and principled people. Such people tend to threaten the prime minister and it does not do to bruise Trudeau’s ego.

The appointment of Carney, former head of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, to head up some kind of “task force” on economic growth also seems like a desperate ploy to divert attention from all the bad news surrounding the prime minister right now.