It was a moment of global clarity. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to the world’s political and economic elite gathered in Davos this week described global realities, past and present, with a candour and nuance rarely heard from a serving politician.
The message was twofold.
First, Carney made clear that the world has changed, and the old comfortable ways of global politics are not coming back. Those who wait for sanity to return are waiting in vain. We are in a world increasingly shaped by the threat and the use of hard power. All states must accept that reality.
Despite this, Carney’s second and more hopeful message was that while the globally powerful may act unilaterally, others — notably “middle powers” like Canada — are not helpless.
By finding ways to co-operate on areas of shared interest, states like Canada can pool their limited resources to build what amounts to a flexible network of co-operative ties. Taken together they can provide an alternative to simply rolling over and taking whatever great powers like the United States dole out.
Do people not get that he needs to play nice with Trump? Like what do you want him to say to the guy? “Go fuck yourself!”?
Maybe if we had a similarly sized military….
In hindsight it’s all water under the bridge.
I wasn’t expecting Carney to be like the Ford and call him a pedophile protector, or to explicitly label the US as a military threat… But I can’t deny I was disappointed of how easily he was able to be a doormat in response to Trump’s sudden inexplicable gripe against the Digital Services Tax. And I would have liked him to drop the pretenses earlier, of hoping (beyond hope) Trump would pull back on his self-imposed tariff foolishness, by the mere virtue of Canada being a reasonable negotiating partner.
I mean, I would love for Carney to waltz in the white house, sock Trump in the mouth, and give him the Stone Cold stunner, followed by the people’s elbow.
But it’s not going to happen.
What a waste of money that would be. Canada’s military is appropriately sized. The US has the massive insecurity complex. Russia isn’t really a threat. China Is.
I’m not saying we should have a similarly sized military. I’m saying it’s a bad idea to tell your neighbour tyrant directly to fuck off when he’s on a rampage, and that if our military was comparable then maybe you could expect him to say that.
Everyone’s seemingly got this fantasy of walking up to Homelander or Mr. Incredible, punching them in the face, and walking away triumphant to… something. Nobody jerks it to breaking their hand on the superpowered jaw and then getting a hole kicked through their chest, even if that’s what would happen.