USA / Canada

A Defeat for the American President – in Carney’s Canada!

That was good news for global liberalism. Right before the 100th day of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Liberal Party of Canada won the parliamentary elections in the northern neighbour nation of the United States of America. And it did so after a brilliant campaign with a proud message to Trump that Canada stands tall against any insults and threats from its southern neighbour.

And these had really been disgusting: Trump made mocking public pleas for Canada to become the 51st state of the United States, he called the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by the derogatory title „governor“. Worst of all, he introduced – in a deliberately hostile move - high tariffs of 25 % on Canadian products, thus violating the rules of the Trade Agreement USMCA between the United States, Mexico and Canada, which he himself – in his first term – had concluded (as follow-up of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA). And all this vis-à-vis a member state of NATO and a firm ally in two World Wars, who suffered disproportionate human losses because tough Canadians always had a reputation of being brave and brilliant military fighters at the worst fronts.

In his campaign, Mark Carney gave the right answer to Trump’s bullying. He portrayed himself as a self-confident leader, firmly rooted in global liberal thinking and – as a former central bank president –  with a high competence when it comes to addressing the great economic challenges. He thus easily countered the „Canada First“-campaign of the competing conservatives whose message began to appear to the public as „too close to Trump“ to be convincing. Within months, the originally big lead of the Conservatives melted away. Of course, it also helped that Mark Carney has a reputation of being a middle-of-the-road politician – and not a left-leaning liberal like his predecessor Justin Trudeau, who was widely accused of being „too woke“ to credibly represent the interests of the „average“ citizen.

Clearly, Mark Carney now faces difficult challenges. He must continue to re-unite a country that had for decades a tendency to fall apart in regional interests – from French-speaking Québec in the East to rich oil-producing Alberta in the West. Even more difficult may be the dealing with Trump. Standing tall with national pride will not be enough. Given the extremely high degree of economic integration of Canada and the United States, a genuine trade war must be avoided and pragmatically liberal solutions achieved in tough negotiations. Beyond this, Canada is currently holding the G7-presidency, and Mark Carney will be under global scrutiny whether he is able to heal some of the wounds that Trump’s misbehaviour has left between the biggest market economies of the world and their democratic governments.

However, all that said, it remains good news for the world that, for the first time in Trump’s second term, a major G7-country and the closest neighbour of the United States has put up a STOP-signal to Trump. Apparently, the world is not irrevocably sliding into a right-wing populist or autocratic political climate. Liberalism remains vital. Reason for hope.

Professor Karl-Heinz Paqué (68) is Chairman of the board of directors of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation for Freedom and President of Liberal International. In his youth as an international economist in the making, he studied in Canada and in the United States. Since then, he remained a passionate friend of both countries.