341 - A Kernel of Better News in Trying Times: Canada to the Rescue

These are desperate and destructive times. What authoritarians do is attack the societal institutions that serve people and strip them of their meaning. The Nazis did so after ending the Weimar Republic. Mussolini's fascism did the same. President Viktor Orban has mimicked some of these same maneuvers in Hungary. Stalin, his successors, and now Putin, adopt the same tactics (plus straight censorship) to eviscerate the last shreds of democratic integrity within an overwhelmed society. Trump and his hidden architects and enablers are doing the same. Control of human destiny through a deeply slanted culture war is the method. Enriching individuals and destroying opposition by prevarication, distortion, and outright lies are the means.

As the New York Times editorial board wrote eloquently: "When a political leader wants to move a democracy toward a more authoritarian form of government, he often sets out to undermine independent sources of information and accountability. The leader tries to delegitimize judges, sideline autonomous government agencies and muzzle the media."

Trump has done all of that in spades. He is attempting to defy the many Federal district court judges who have begun pushing back against his monarchical pretensions -- his claims that if he does something to help the republic then it is de facto legal because he declares it so. His actions purposely defy and attempt to override the U.S. Constitution. And his demonizing of judges is rightly rebuked by Chief Justice John Roberts, but whether that will stem the tide is unlikely. There is immense peril in and threatening within these United States as Trump launches himself and his enablers deep into the dystopia of grab, smash, and run.

Fortunately, the good news is that Canada is not the U.S. A gifted, principled, experienced technocratic leader of integrity has become prime minister of our northern neighbor. He stands at least a reasonable chance after a soon-to-be-declared national election to remain prime minister and to defeat Pierre Poilievre, his Conservative Party and Trump-admiring rival. If he does, Trump's egregious and perpetually slanderous behavior will have helped enormously to sustain and elect a Canadian antidote to raffish and despotic behavior south of the common border.

The contrast is palpable and profound. Mark Carney, former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and a sometime Goldman Sachs investment operative, has from the political start made it clear that Canada would remain Canada and that Trump's foolish proclamation of all of Canada as a fifty-first state is both insulting and a non-starter.

Carney has to deal with all of Trump's tariff nonsense, too, and will do that by retaliating where appropriate and, rhetorically at least, by going bravado to bravado with Trump. Since Carney, unlike Trump, speaks straightforwardly, with truth to power, and never peddles deceit, hyperbole, distortion, exaggeration, or prevarication, he presents a welcoming positive image across North America. Trump threatens and pontificates. Carney draws red lines over which Trump dares to stumble.

In the tariff war that Trump has initiated, he does have leverage because 80 percent of Canadian exports go south. Only 17 percent of US exports head north. Even so, in dollar terms each country exports very similar amounts, a joint total of nearly $1 trillion. Yet, as the American automobile manufacturers have howled, the assembly of cars is bi-national, with partly finished vehicles going back and forth across the Huron River and Lake Huron between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, innumerable time before they are completed and ready for sale. Interrupting the auto trade will be costly, and tariffs will cause consternation to both sides and unnecessary extra costs to American consumers.

Abundant heavy petroleum comes from Alberta to American refineries that are geared up to take only that grade of fuel. Retooling the refineries will take years. Putting extra tariffs on oil from Alberta will, punishingly, raise gas prices at pumps throughout the mid-West. Who wants that result?

Additionally, electricity supplies to the mid-West from Ontario and to New England from Quebec could be cut off (as threatened) or become excessively costly. Carney will only want to turn the lights out in Chicago and Boston as a last resort. But Trump could push him relentlessly and thoughtlessly (as Trump frequently does). Then the dictator will meet the democrat and all Americans will suffer because of Trump's egocentric authoritarian ambitions.

In these immensely dangerous and unsettling times, Carney can -- if elected prime minister -- provide an entirely positive and uplifting method of governing that will show the rest of the world how the U.S.' closest neighbor, most similar system, and longtime friend and colleague governs honestly and in a manner that could be inspiring.

Under Carney, Canada could become the "sensible," sane, North American power and rise internationally above its middle ranking in world affairs. Given Trump's promotion of bad ideas Canada can now help lead the world, North America, and NATO in a principled, morally alert, manner.

Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lester Pearson, coming from a stern Methodist household, catapulted Canada into international prominence in the 1950s and 1960s by insisting that there were right and wrong answers to problems between nations. Given Trump's entirely transactional and amoral approach to the calamitous problems of the world, Carney could shine a bright light on principle, rather than expediency, if he advocates integrity and honesty in contrast to the shambolic political huckstering that Trump is about. The contrast between a newly assertive Canada and foolish United States would be stark and much welcomed by a twenty-first century world of nations looking for guidance, not gun fights and personal attacks.

Canada needs to stiffen its shoulders and begin to play a more prominent role in NATO. That will mean spending more on defense generally, but particularly on putting more Coast Guard icebreakers into service to guard the Northwest Passage in order to secure North America and keep a close eye on Russian and Chinese maneuverings. The early warning sentinels in northern Canada require refurbishing. But, most of all, Canada needs to play a more decisive role in NATO, and in support of Ukraine's war effort. Since Trump may dump Ukraine tomorrow and undercut NATO, there is a role in the defense of the world that Pearson would have appreciated. Carney's Canada could influence the manner in which decisions about Ukraine are made and even begin to reinforce existing troop detachments there. But, as Pearson would easily have understood, there are ways to provide moral clarity on behalf of a re-energized, re-internationalized, Canada.

A Trump-imperiled world needs a strong voice for ethical behavior that Canada can now supply. Canada can raise its voice on behalf of Gazans and against ethnic cleansing. It could voice support for Panama and the sanctity of international treaties. It could, echoing Pearson, show that the fate of the world's poor mattered, and that human rights should not be discarded.

Carney's Canada can affirm its support for the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and for the reality of global warming and the requirement that the nations of the world continue to reduce CO₂ transmissions, plus methane. It could reiterate its support for the World Health Organization, under siege from Trump.

Given Trump and Elon Musk's destruction of U. S. foreign assistance efforts, a newly vigorous Canada can help pick up some of the slack. Carney can articulate a desire to replace some of what Trump has discarded:­ food assistance in the developing world, especially Africa, technical training, democracy support, water improvements, HIV/AIDS drugs, and much more. Canada may not have the financial resources available to the U.S., but it could take on some of the burden that the Trump administration is dropping.

By so doing, Canada can add to its quiet reputation for soft power. Pearson would have liked that, for he raised Canada's stature in the world by clearly articulating the need for integrity and clarity in dealings among nations. In a Trump-dominated world, with the U.S. shedding its reputable soft power and its reliability as an ally, Canada is credible.

Carney, a decent man with a strong backbone and a nation devoted to fairness and equity, not kleptocracy and unbridled transactionalism, could be this era's Jack the Giant Killer. Carney, on behalf of a revived Canada, could be just the perfect instrument of the orange-faced liar's deflation.