Last week, I reviewed the domestic record of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government over the past 13 months. However, the key factor that Canadians seem to hold in his favor is the perception of his ability to stand up to the United States. Few can forget how Carney, with the complicity of the anti-conservative national media, portrayed his campaign as a Churchillian defense against a belligerent America. That theatrical approach has ended, and Carney must now confront the reality of dealing with the United States—a challenge that Canada's longest-serving prime minister, W.L. Mackenzie King, described to General de Gaulle in 1945 as an overwhelming contiguity.
Carney's Controversial Stance on Iran and Israel
Mark Carney has conspicuously questioned the legality of the American and Israeli military intervention to prevent Iran from developing and deploying nuclear weapons. This is a dishonest and profoundly mistaken policy. Iran has offered constant provocations throughout the 47-year history of the Islamic Republic, serving as the world's principal state sponsor of terrorism. The major European countries and the European Union itself joined the disgraceful nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, which effectively gave Iran a green light to deploy nuclear weapons after ten years—a deadline that would have passed last year. The world owes a great debt to President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for preventing this outcome. Greater independence from the U.S. is desirable, but not by suggesting moral equivalence between Washington and the murderous ayatollahs.
NATO's Hypocrisy and Antisemitism in Canada
It is disgraceful that most NATO members, including Canada, waffled in craven pseudo-moralistic hypocrisy about the necessity of preventing Iran from blackmailing the world and threatening Israel's existence. Carney has also been vague about Israel's right to crush terrorists on its borders and has remained silent about the alarming rise of antisemitic acts within Canada.
Economic Challenges and Opportunities
The prime minister has commendably pledged to increase defense spending. His attempts to broaden economic contacts with other countries are conceptually sensible. However, Canada will not attract the investment needed to restore economic growth and close the 50 percent gap in per capita prosperity with the United States unless it lowers corporate tax rates below U.S. levels. This is essential to attract the investment required for vigorous economic growth and to reverse the negative capital flows of the past Liberal decade. Moreover, Canada cannot realize its economic potential until it abandons Carney's neo-Luddite ecological views and maximizes energy exports to a world clamoring for its oil and gas.
Navigating U.S. Economic Integration
As long as approximately three-quarters of Canada's exports go to the United States and Americans provide more than three-fifths of its imports, Canada is effectively as integrated into the U.S. economy as California or Texas. Canadian trade negotiators in the current discussions over renewing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement will likely acquit themselves well. Once the agreement is renewed, Canada must base its foreign and economic policy on achieving maximum non-inflationary economic growth, attracting foreign investment, and diversifying its economic dependence on the U.S. relationship—without causing gratuitous offense to its southern neighbor.
