There’s a broader strategy at work here, too. By letting his opponents expose the smallness of their politics, Carney’s will start to look bigger by comparison. This might not satisfy the Liberal partisans in his midst, although after he saved their party from political oblivion they almost certainly won’t push back very hard. But it will look good to the sort of middle of road Canadians he’ll need to win the next election, whenever it comes — the ones who largely abandoned the party near the end of Trudeau’s leadership.