EYE ON POLITICS:
Carney's challenges ahead
by Kerry Turner
Prime Minister Mark Carney is getting a chance to put his campaign promises into action over the next few weeks, and Canadians will be watching closely, to count both successes and missteps.
Carney released the federal government’s spending plan for national security, committing to a boost in Canadian military spending up to two per cent of Canada's entire GDP, and bringing Canada more in line with our international obligations under NATO. "When it's something as fundamental as defence, defence of Canadians, defence of Canadian interests, you need to act and that's why we're pulling things forward," Carney explained. The plan amounts to a cash increase of $9.3 billion in defence in the 2025-26 fiscal year. "This is not about getting to two per cent, full stop," Carney emphasized. "It's about defending Canada. Our ability to defend Canada is not at a point in time, it's going to require sustained investment and as I said in my remarks this morning, we're getting to this level with this $9.3 billion, but we expect a further acceleration." Canada has long herded criticism for its defence spending shortfalls, dating back to the Obama administration.
Carney’s announcement comes just a week after NATO defence ministers met and endorsed new spending targets, moving the needle to as much as five per cent of GDP, something leaders are expected to commit to at the NATO leaders summit later this month. No country currently meets the five per cent figure at this time, including the U.S., whose president, Donald Trump, was the rallying cry behind the hike.
In the same announcement, Carney pledged to end this country's reliance on the U.S. for defence equipment by diverting billions of dollars in spending to Canadian manufacturers. This promise aligns with a vow to break down interprovincial trade barriers by Canada Day, as outlined in Bill C-5. With the looming deadline less than two weeks away, Canadians remain skeptical on the delivery of the Liberal campaign promise.
Bills traditionally take a significant amount of time to become law, but Carney has proposed a shortcut that would help push the bill forward in a five-day timeframe. Consequently, this would also allow a special committee only two days to scrutinize Bill C-5. The order’s formal name is “An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.” Or as NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice calls it, a super-motion. “[It] will, if passed, speed up the debate and study of that bill in an incredible and scandalous way,” Boulerice said. All of that hinges on the super-motion. If that passes on June 13, Carney will almost certainly get his legislation by his deadline, provided the Bill passes with a majority. “It's really against the rights of parliamentarians,” Boulerice said. “It's really anti-democratic. It's all the horrible things that a government can do to shut down debate and pass a really controversial project through the throats of the MPs and the general public and First Nations and environmental groups.”
The controversy on passing the Bill is perhaps just as complex as the Bill itself – economists and health experts alike also warn of possible health impacts that come with contradictory provincial health standards. He warns that, for example, it could prompt the return of products banned by federal regulation, such as those containing asbestos. "There's a federal measure banning asbestos in products, but provinces allow up to a certain percent of asbestos in products," he said. "So that would mean that despite asbestos being banned in products for some years now, you could have asbestos return to products. That's not good." Asbestos has been known to cause a variation of different cancers, specifically for workers in construction and building sectors, particularly prior to Ministry of Labour regulatory reporting and personal protective equipment requirements.
However, the necessity of opening up trade at home remains imperative – the ongoing impact of American tariffs, particularly the rise of the tariff on steel and aluminum to 50% announced by US President Donald Trump in early June, continues to be felt by Canadians. In a decision that will affect 153 Hamilton steelworkers, steelmaker ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada says it is "restructuring" its wire drawing operations in Hamilton and Montreal – closing its Hamilton mill and concentrating work east to Montreal.
With Canada-U.S. relations continuing to sour and ongoing tariffs having no tangible end in sight, Massena, New York Mayor Greg Paquin offered an olive branch, that was perhaps always dangling in the periphery at the ground level – he called for unity and a continued duty to promote a sense of mutual respect between our neighbouring communities. He also expressed hope that members of both communities could get past what is happening at the federal level between both countries in order to move forward together. “It’s not going to get better by ignoring each other, it’s only going to get better by continuing that relationship,” he said. “I hope we can still maintain that community relationship.”
The most recent item on the agenda for Carney was the G7 Summit, a delegation that first formed in 1975 and met again this year in Kananaskis, Alberta on June 15th to 17th. The G7 includes world leaders from Canada, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. The international organization is not based on a treaty and has no permanent secretariat or office and has gone through a variation of members, most recently with the expulsion of Russia in 2014. While the G7 leaders are considered the core group members, delegations from countries such as Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Ukraine and Australia have all been invited as guests. The famous Summit was Carney’s first major diplomatic event that put him head-to-head with US President Donald Trump on the international stage where topics with conflicting views such as national defence strategies, the global trade war and the War in Ukraine are sure to be formal agenda topics as well as merit for closed-door discussion amongst the world leaders. However, all eyes – especially Canadian eyes – were no doubt focused on how Carney handled Donald Trump.
Some have weighed in with words of wisdom; such as former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. Referring to Trump, Chretien had the following advice for Carney: “If he [Trump] has decided to make a show, to be in the news, he will do something crazy. So let him do it. Keep talking normally,” Chretien delivered his message at a pre-G7 conference organized by the University of Calgary on Thursday. “He tends to be a bully once in a while, and don’t lose your cool when you have a bully in front of you… unless you grab him by the neck,” he added, earning laughs from the crowd for the reference to his famous 1996 “Shawinigan Handshake” with a protester’s throat.
The impact, outcomes and soundbites of the G7 Summit will surely make their way through the news circuits, but one thing that Canadians will be looking for from our leader is accountability for the campaign promises that earned him a seat in the county’s highest office.