Who Do You Trust?

 

One of the pleasures of writing this blog is the opportunity it gives for expressing my and others' views. Although I often draw upon the thoughts and analyses of others, I try to frame them through my own observations and experiences, having lived a reasonably long life.

Such a life has taught me the importance of being aware of events that affect our country and our world. Reading as widely as I can has helped me hone some critical-thinking skills, skills I always say are in development, never fully realized.

All of which is my rather long-winded way of saying that when I offer my many criticisms of our federal government, led by Mark Carney, I do so with critical-thinking, analysis and personal values uppermost in my mind. And as I have stated many times here, I believe that, despite some really good trade-diversification initiatives, Carney's submissiveness to the Trump regime is leading us nowhere good.

In that conclusion I am not alone. Well-regarded writer Luke Savage has similar concerns, suggesting there is a huge gap in the rhetoric Carney used in his election address and his actual practice, promising muscularity against Trump but providing only mewling responses.

Since last year’s election, however, the Carney government has repeatedly assumed a far more deferential and obsequious posture in its dealings with Washington. In trade negotiations, it capitulated to U.S. tech giants by abandoning plans for a Digital Services Tax, dropped retaliatory tariffs and introduced draconian border legislation that has been justly criticized by human rights groups.

Moreover, this approach has also taken us down some dark avenues.

Earlier this year, Carney offered swift backing for the illegal U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran (even as that war’s earliest casualties included nearly 200 children killed in the bombing of a school.) He has similarly backed the administration’s Orwellian “Board of Peace” plans in Gaza, indicated a willingness to sign on to its proposed “Golden Dome” defence initiative, refrained from criticizing Marco Rubio’s attempts to dismantle the International Criminal Court through coercion and sought to reassure American investors by pledging to help “Make America Great Again.” Last fall, the government also invited Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts — a key Trump ally and architect of the far-right blueprint Project 2025 — to attend a closed-door meeting with members of cabinet (the visit was ultimately cancelled, almost certainly thanks to the ensuing backlash.) Does anyone seriously think this was what Canadians elected the Carney-led Liberals to do?

Even worse was to lend, by attendance, Canada's imprimatur at a summit convened by Marco Rubio on "left-wing terrorism" (in all practical terms, anyone who challenges the Trump agenda).

 [T]he conference is part of a wider neo-McCarthyite push to criminalize political opponents (as journalist Ken Klippenstein notes, related administration documents even make explicit reference to the likes of Black Lives Matter, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the union that represents Amazon workers.)

When asked about Canada’s attendance at the summit, officials at Foreign Affairs said only that the government “reg­u­larly exchanges views with other coun­tries on viol­ent extrem­ism trends,” further stressing the “long history” of co-oper­a­tion with the United States in the fight against ter­ror­ism. 

Savage says some will argue that Carney is simply doing what is necessary  to reduce the damage inflicted by the deranged Trump. If that is the case, we have gotten little from such acts of prostitution. But the writer posits another possibility:

But we should also consider the possibility that Carney’s apparent promise of a new and more independent global posture was never really genuine in the first place.

Both at home and abroad, the Trump threat serves as a pretext for a form of would-be pragmatism that is really just conservatism by any other name. Within its own borders, Canada is increasingly being run less like a country and more like a business.

There is much evidence to support this thesis:

[Canada's] abandonment of climate targets and gutting of environmental regulations; its tax cuts for the wealthy; its slash and burn attitude toward the public sector; and its overzealous embrace of AI. 

This also helps explain the very stark difference between the prime minister’s campaign rhetoric and his incessant pursuit of cosy relations with Washington. After all, key planks of the Carney program — from the construction of new oil and gas infrastructure to the ramping up of military procurement and the supercharging of AI — will ultimately require the close involvement of U.S.-based companies and investors. Among other things, that practically guarantees strategic alignment with the Trump administration and the maintenance of friendly relations with America’s unapologetically pro-corporate president as long as he remains in office. 

Many will be loathe to accept such a critical take on Mr. Carney's government, preferring the pleasing illusion that he is moving all of us in the right direction for the right reasons. However, if, as Luke Savage suggests, something more sinister is at work, we would be well-advised to look a little closer at our prime minister and his policies, and bear in mind the old advice about not being fooled by a wolf in sheep's clothing.