During the last federal election, I disagreed with those who argued that tactical support for the Carney Liberals was needed in order to try and prevent a government headed by Pierre Poilievre. I felt at the time that those on the left who made this argument were underestimating just how dangerous Carney would be, as he developed and implemented a strategy to respond to the America First protectionist turn by the Trump administration.

Now that Carney’s project is underway, we are able to appreciate just what he has in mind. He is a skilled technocrat of capitalist interests, with experience as a central banker and as a high-placed functionary of the predatory Goldman Sachs and Brookfield Asset Management. Despite his progressive credentials, such as the call he issued for an “inclusive capitalism” while he was governor of the Bank of England and his spell as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, Carney has the background and experience to advance a ruthless political agenda in the present unstable context.

As I have previously argued in an article for Midnight Sun, it remains to be seen whether the Canadian ruling establishment will reach a painful accommodation with the Trump administration or focus on retaliatory measures and an effort to diversify trade. Certainly, all of these options are being pursued but they will all come at a price and “Defending the so-called national interest will require increased ‘competitiveness’: attacks on workers, along with cuts to social programs.”

Carney gets to work

Trump’s trade war has already made a global impact, but for Canada the implications are devastating in light of a shared border and extensive trade with the US. For Carney and his provincial accomplices, defending the “national interest” in this context is synonymous with the interests of capitalism. Thus, their responses will revolve around serving big capital to preserve profitability.

At this moment of threat and crisis, Carney is quite prepared to ensure that capitalism becomes considerably less “inclusive” in order to weather the storm. At this relatively early stage of the game, he is leaving no doubt as to the course his government will chart. A highly interventionist state power will be subordinated to the imperatives of capital regardless of the broader consequences.

On June 6, Carney’s government tabled legislation designed to reduce interprovincial trade barriers, facilitate labour mobility and “kickstart major projects.” As reported by CTV News, according to Carney his “One Canadian Economy” bill “will allow more goods, more services to be transported, sold, and bought across our nation without restriction, generating new opportunities for Canadian businesses and lowering costs for Canadian consumers.”

The article acknowledges that “interprovincial trade barriers—such as health and safety regulations, varying product standards, or incongruent trade and professional licensing standards—exist to protect jobs regionally,” but it accepts that the measures are being taken for the common good.

Back in February, as this deregulation strategy was emerging, The Breach correctly assessed it as a “corporate scam” focused on “dismantling regulations that protect workers, consumers, the environment, and nascent industries.” Moreover, “any economic gains from deregulation will flow directly into the pockets of corporate giants, both Canadian and American.”

Several other components of Carney’s dangerous agenda have come to light. The Migrant Rights Network has condemned Bill C-2, the so-called Strong Borders Act, because it “fundamentally undermines Canada’s refugee and immigration system in violation of international obligations and basic human rights. The organization stresses that the legislation “will drastically restrict refugee protections and allow for mass deportations and immigration exclusion.”

With this attack, they continue, “We’re witnessing the deliberate expansion of a mass deportation machine designed to tear apart families and communities. With over 3,000 study and work permits already expiring daily because of Trudeau’s immigration cuts, this bill will only worsen a humanitarian catastrophe. This bill is immoral, it is illegal, and it will be stopped.”

Like the European countries that have functioned as junior partners of the US and who must now find a way forward in a situation where the longstanding role of US world leadership, such as it was, has been supplanted by an America-First strategy little concerned with overseeing global stability, the Canadian establishment is scrambling to deal with the elements of a volatile new reality in which Trump and his minions focus on pursuing immediate benefits to the US. A notable development is the growing uncertainty of US military protection for American allies, which is accelerating a drive across the Global North to increase arms spending already well underway since 2022.

In this regard, the Carney government is looking to move closer to the European powers. CBC has reported that discussions are underway to link Canada to “ReArm Europe,” which projects $1.25 trillion in military spending on the European continent over the next five years.

The CBC also reports that in a speech on May 28, “Defence Minister David McGuinty pulled out all the stops… to enlist the country’s top arms makers in the Liberal government’s plans to accelerate military spending.” McGuinty affirmed that “Canada plans to triple defence spending from 2014 levels by 2030.” Such prodigious spending on the means of making war can only be paid for by unleashing a greatly intensified austerity agenda.

With fitting irony, Carney, the former UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, is leading the charge on environmentally destructive oil and gas projects. On June 2, Global News reported that Carney and the provincial premiers emerged from a major strategy session united on “the need to fast-track nation-building energy infrastructure projects across the country.” The PM noted that the projects “could very well include a new oil pipeline as part of a new western and Arctic energy corridor.”

Canada is facing another disastrous wildfire season and we learn from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that “Earth’s atmosphere now has more carbon dioxide in it than it has in millions—and possibly tens of millions—of years.” Yet, a key part of Carney’s response to the trade crisis will be to double down on projects that will accelerate the global climate catastrophe.

Destructive projects

Provincial governments appear to be completely on board with Carney’s approach and are drawing up their own wish lists for projects that will inevitably exacerbate environmental degradation. The CBC reported that Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew “says oil could be among the commodities shipped through Hudson Bay if Canada proceeds with a new or expanded port along the province’s coastline.” He wants Carney’s support for a northern trade corridor “that would involve a new all-season road, a hydro-electric transmission line to Nunavut and potentially a pipeline to Hudson Bay.”

Alberta United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith praised Kinew’s plan, declaring, “This is what a Team Canada approach looks like—provinces and their premiers supporting other provinces in getting their products to market for the benefit of all Canadians.”

Those whose communities are threatened by wildfires or who will choke on their smoke might take a somewhat different view of the matter.

In Ontario, the Doug Ford Conservatives are leaping ahead with their efforts to use the trade war as a pretext to remove barriers to corporate rapacity. Over the furious objections of Indigenous communities and environmentalists, the Ontario government is proceeding with Bill 5. In an appeal to the Ontario government to withdraw the bill, Amnesty International explains that the legislation features “the creation of ‘special economic zones’ where critical provincial laws, including those protecting endangered species, clean water, and consultation with Indigenous Nations, may be suspended to fast-track development.”

We can see an effective consensus emerging in Canada’s political establishment on the need to respond to the threat of Trump’s trade war with a concerted drive to remove barriers to profitability and boost ‘competitiveness.’ This is already taking on the dimensions of a major assault on workers, communities and the environment.

As Ford’s legislation was being passed into law, a protest encampment was set up by Indigenous people at the Ontario Legislature to challenge Bill 5 and the attack on their rights that it entails. CTV News commented that as this resistance escalates, “road, rail and mine blockades could be on the horizon.”

The struggles taken up by Indigenous people will be a vital component of a generalized resistance that must emerge in the days ahead. The wide-ranging and devastating nature of the attack on Indigenous rights, workers’ rights and environmental regulation that the federal government is spearheading as part and parcel of its response to the impacts of the trade war calls for a united movement that leaves no one behind. Those of us who were part of the Ontario Days of Action against the Mike Harris government during the 1990s will recall the political strikes and mass protests that marked that campaign.

In order to mount a muscular defence to the Carney Liberals’ class war we will need a level of social mobilization across Canada that is even more sweeping and uncompromising than the Days of Action. Such historic struggles can’t simply be wished into existence, of course. But the attempt to put the burden of the trade crisis on the backs of workers and communities is producing the deep injustices and the simmering anger that can unleash such a movement.

John Clarke is a writer and retired organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). Follow his tweets at @JohnOCAP and blog at johnclarkeblog.com.