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.
I think anyone who thinks in absolutes of saying he’s “flip flopping” is a fool and have no concept of nuance and pragmatism. Even more so after he gave that speech, especially f you didn’t catch the part where he said “such classic risk management comes at a price”.
What we’re seeing, I believe, is risk management in action. The “price” we’re paying is likely every single piece of policy that is short term (as in 5-10 years IMO) detrimental. But can be diverted course when things improve. But that’s also up to us to vote for people that are principled rather than voting by emotions. The horizon of a government should be long term and not short term.
I feel this is a pivotal moment in history. If we can somehow avoid an American invasion, we can help build a more just and equitable world, one that can stand in front of giants and say, nuh uh with a waggy finger!
Given that Carney will allow corporations to rule Canada with an iron fist it will only be a different kind of tyranny. Between a rock and a hard place and all that.
God. I hate living in this timeline.
I think we aren’t as powerless as you think and that we have both done something that seems small but is a step in the direction of freedom from those corporations. We have joined a platform not owned by them. We have freedom to choose and make our thoughts heard still. So elbows up into the jaw of cynicism.
but is a step in the direction of freedom from those corporations.
The Liberal party introduced Bill C-15 which literally allows any corporation to be exempted from any law.
https://lemmy.ca/post/59019030
They know who they want to rule us.
I moved from Lebanon 8 years ago with my Canadian wife, and I was happy to leave that unstable region with the worst neighbours. Alas, I’m fated to live next to terrible neighbours again. I hope Canada will strengthen the relations with the rest of the world, and never turn to the US again. And as an anti-capitalist and anti-facist, I hope Canada does not become like the US.
I mean, look on the bright side. At least the unhinged fascists to the south aren’t bombing us right now, unlike Lebanon’s case. It’s not ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’, it’s ‘out of the frying pan, into a different, less hot frying pan’. Could be worse!
For now. If not militarily, they might get us politically by turning our politicians into their fashion, and thus take control of us.
Hell, they already had us, and we just didn’t know it. Every western country was in lockstep with the US, especially in foreign policy. Now the US has decided that soft power is woke, and everyone has to publicly submit to them. This could at least offer us an opportunity to break free, though the odds could be better.
Every Lebanese person I’ve ever met has been rad AF. Please explain.
Explain what exactly?
Why you’re all rad, I presume
I was born that way, what else can I say :)
How every single person from your country is so nice! I don’t understand. I’ve never met a single Lebanese person that was anything but funny and sweet and kind.
You haven’t met enough i suppose. There’s a lot of shit people from Lebanon just as from anywhere else in the world, no matter the race or religion. I’ve met wonderful Canadians and some bad ones, same with US folks. I appreciate your nice words though, it’s positive, if this was reddit i would have been attacked by now. Thanks :) stay good!
There was no capitulation. The take is just stupid and naive.
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….
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.
Canada having a military or weapons on par with the US would make them even more insecure. They like to play the all powerful big shots. We let them.
Canada needs to build lasting relationships with democratic allies like the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and others. Carney’s visit last week in China and the deal was a mistake imo. It risks to contribute to Canadian canola farmers ongoing dependence from a single market that is governed by a dictatorial government, and could make Ottawa vulnerable for future coercion as we have seen in other countries.
That’s silly, you can’t just decouple from both of the world’s largest economies. The EU deindustrialized itself, and Australia and New Zealand aren’t exactly economic superpowers. Also, Japan is a de-facto one party state with a far-right government.
The smart thing to do is to play the superpowers against each other - distance yourself from the US as much as we can (which we of course can only do to an extent), and normalize relations with China. We would be fools to continue to blindly follow US foreign policy while the US threatens to invade us.
This is how China argues, but it doesn’t make sense. There is no such thing as a ‘normal’ relationship with a dictatorship like China (or the US). Canada needs to diversify its trade toward reliable partners in the democratic world. China will take advantage at the cost of Canadian citizens as soon as it can.
The rest of the “democratic” world supported Israel as they bombed Gaza to rubble, and supported America in basically every murderous invasion and regime change of the last 80 years, right up until America threatened to take Greenland - suddenly it’s different if America comes for someone in the club. All the “democratic west” amounts to is a few rich countries run by rich pedophiles, but God forbid we do business with big bad China, right?
