Douglas Roche, the retired parliamentarian and senator who turned 96 this summer, wrote an essay for the Spring 2025 print edition of the Island Catholic News quarterly in which he shared memories of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s involvement at St. Joseph’s Parish, in Ottawa. We’re sharing an excerpt from this piece below.
Mark Carney had just come to the podium at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa to make his acceptance speech after the Liberal Party of Canada elected him leader and thus Canada’s 24th Prime Minister. He began talking about a message he had received from his friend Bob Zettel, who “goes to my church.” Then he smiled, “Actually, I go to Bob’s church because he goes there a lot more frequently than I do.”
Zettel’s message, which also went to the three other leadership candidates, implored the candidates to look beyond the crisis of the Trump tariffs “to promote a united Canada, a commitment — a commitment — to common good and the respect and the rule of law throughout the world.”
Zettel’s request struck a nerve with Carney, for the common good is at the centre of the political philosophy of the new prime minister.
I was struck that Carney gave such prominence to his friend Zettel, so I phoned Zettel, who lives in Ottawa, and found out that he is a 75-year-old former high school teacher and a friend of Carney’s for some 25 years. He and Carney attend St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where the liturgy, deeply involving the laity, attracts people from across the city.
This happens to be the church where I grew up and served as an altar boy 85 years ago. I attend St. Joseph’s whenever I visit Ottawa, and it was here, one Sunday a fews years ago, where I saw Mark Carney give the homily. I was very impressed that the Governor of the Bank of Canada would play such a leading role
in the Mass. Although Carney had already achieved fame, he was treated as just another parishioner taking part in a liturgy heavily influenced by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Zettel told me about Carney’s strong commitment to the social justice call of the Church. Before we closed off our conversation, Zettel made an amusing comment that told me a lot about Carney: “They claim he’s an elitist. Well, if he really was an elitist, he wouldn’t have been hanging around me for years.”
After the Mass at which I had seen Carney give the homily, I spoke to him, for we do indeed have a relationship. In 1980, Carney’s father, Bob, was the Liberal candidate running against me in the federal election. I was then the sitting Progressive Conservative M.P. I won that contest and always remembered the pleasant high school teacher who had been my opponent. Mark, who was a young teen-ager at the time, and I reminisced about that long-ago election. I tried to be diplomatic and told Mark, “That was a case where the best man did not win.” “No, no,” he rejoined gracefully, “the best man did win.
Douglas Roche
Editor’s note: In 2022, Douglas Roche spoke on camera about growing up in St. Joseph’s Parish in the 1930s. Watch the YouTube video interview here.