After reading that long CBC report about Robert Carney, I now feel like Mark Carney makes more sense. I get Mark Carney now in a way I didn’t before.

Nothing in the report is a surprise, even if you’re like me and were not aware of Robert Carney and his apparent public statements and roles before his 2009 death. But we always knew he was a teacher in a remote NWT town in the late 1960s. There are only so many ways that could have been made manifest.

I feel like the picture is a bit clearer now, about Mark Carney and his mysterious transition from small city Alberta to Harvard. His dad was a prominent figure for better or for worse. There’s nothing bad about this, but it does feel like Mark Carney’s early biography has been cherry-picked for political reasons, which also isn’t necessarily bad or unexpected. But it feels like the work of a person with a long history in business, where you can decide what you don’t discuss, and almost no history in politics, where you don’t always get that choice.

The CBC report notes the problem of a “sins of the father” story, but my sense is that that very idea — that children shouldn’t take responsibility for their parents’ actions — is a White, western one. I say that as a White, western person. And even we know the “sins of the father” way out is not true.

I say from personal experience we all want to cut off our ancestors who we don’t like, don’t agree with, and who caused us trauma. But life has a way of showing you it’s necessary to reconcile those people to us. We have to understand them and make peace with their role in our life and our existence.

I feel also like Mark Carney won’t be forced to talk about his father in this election campaign, unless something really dramatic happens. I am sure he has his banker mentality that he probably shares with whatever political folk he’s chosen to surround himself with, that tells him and them that he shouldn’t have to talk about it and won’t.

But I think he should. In a very specific way. He should go to APTN or other indigenous forum, and invite them to ask him questions. And he should drop his guard, be honest, and sincere. There’s no real political trap here.

All of us, no matter our race or history, have had to do some kind of personal work on this issue. And that’s all it is. Work. It’s a way of coming to a place of reconciliation, in a way that reconciliation is actionable. I think a Canadian Prime Minister cannot tout reconciliation with aboriginal people and at the same time stay silent about the work of his father in the household where he was raised. I think Carney should trust the process. He shouldn’t be afraid of opening up a wound, even if it’s something he’d like to shelve away.