Mark Carney needs to stop talking about American President Donald Trump because the likely soon to be prime minister is going to lead us straight into economic oblivion, if not into a full blown annexation crisis. The best way for our leaders to deal with Trump’s toxic threats to absorb Canada, or to wipe out the auto industry, is to essentially stop talking in public immediately. Instead, Liberals are gleeful at the opportunity that after nine years in office, they get to campaign against Trump.
The U.S. president’s comments about taking over Canada haven’t sounded like mere trolling for weeks now, but what does Carney think the Americans actually want? To gain leverage in free trade negotiations with an overly aggressive opening position? Access to Canadian resources? For Canada to tighten up its border security? For Canada to spend more on defence? Free vacations in Banff?
Nope, none of that, according to Carney. What Americans really desire is universal health care.
“I think Americans forgot about the need to provide health care to all their citizens. I think that Americans built their social safety net with enormous holes in it, that tens of millions of people fell through,” he said in Winnipeg on Tuesday. “There’s a backlash, and that backlash is leading to them pushing out against us.”
Liberals remain, bafflingly, committed to the idea that Canada’s health system is somehow the envy of the world, and that any country that lacks a similar policy risks descending into chaos.
At his leadership launch last month, Carney said he would offer “experience versus incompetence,” and his boosters in the media are enthralled with his background as as central banker, but so far, he sounds pretty much like any other Liberal.
Whatever the failures of the American health-care system, Canada’s consistently ranks near the middle or bottom when compared to other similar countries, on metrics such as access, wait times and the number of doctors and nurses. Canada does rank highly on how much it spends, though.
As for whether wealth is shared around enough in the U.S., at least there is wealth. In 2021, median income in Canada was about US$50,000 (C$70,000), compared to US$70,000 (C$99,000) down south. What’s more, the median employment income in every province is lower than every American state, even the poorest ones.
Maybe instead of lecturing about social safety nets, Carney could explain what policies he could bring that would let Canadians enjoy similar wage growth to the Americans.
He could also avoid needlessly antagonizing Trump, because, like it or not, he is who we have to deal with.
When, on Tuesday, Carney did address the American president’s 51st state comments directly, it wasn’t just to affirm Canadian sovereignty or to exercise the sort of strategic non-engagement that would benefit this country. He mocked Trump. “I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments,” he said, adding, “Like I will not even repeat it, but you know what I’m talking about.”
Then on Wednesday night in Kelowna, B.C., Carney again mocked the president. “Can we influence Trump? A bit. But then we have to pretend we didn’t,” he said to raucous laughter from his supporters. “Don’t repeat that.”
This is clownish behaviour from Carney, and an indication that he doesn’t represent a break from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but a continuation of the Liberals’ complete lack of seriousness. For example, shortly after the American presidential election, Trudeau said that electing Trump instead of his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, was evidence of widespread sexism in the U.S. He later went on CNN and, brimming with Liberal moral superiority, said, “One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American.”
Carney could have looked at the outgoing prime minister’s remarks as ineffective and charted a different path. But, apparently, the likely winner in next month’s Liberal leadership vote thinks Trudeau is worth emulating.
Whether or not Trump deserves derision and scorn — and he does — is entirely beside the point. It is necessary for any Canadian prime minister to deal with whoever is in the Oval Office in good faith, and you can bet Trump is paying attention to what they say. Any astute observer will tell you that the way to deal with Trump is to flatter him, make concessions that allow him to claim a win and otherwise keep quiet.
The president and those around him have made it clear that they intensely dislike Trudeau. That isn’t to say that someone that has more deft with Trump would be more successful at negotiating, but certainly mocking him at every opportunity is ill advised. Trump’s upending of trade relations and lack of respect for sovereignty is beyond unacceptable, but how we handle this moment will determine what happens next.
Carney’s preening about Canada’s “social safety net” may help him win the Liberal leadership, but it is an attitude that is positively dangerous for dealing with the Americans.
National Post