Mark Carney has already proven he's smarter than Donald Trump. Now he needs to be more ruthless
Mark Carney must have mixed emotions today.
He is ecstatic after winning Monday's election. When the calendar flipped to 2025, the Liberal Party of Canada seemed more doomed than Romeo and Juliet. Justin Trudeau was less popular than gonorrhea. The early prediction markets called for a Pierre Poilievre landslide. That poor bastard ended up losing his own seat. That's like choking to death on a macaroon at your bake sale.
But this Canadian election was always a reflecting pool into America.
Carney emerged as something of a national security blanket, an avuncular fellow who would stare down the erratic gargoyle in the White House. He came across as our best bet in a time of unnatural orange disaster.
The day after a very late Canadian election, Toronto Star Ottawa deputy bureau chief Alex Ballingall and Ottawa bureau reporters Ryan Tumilty, Raisa Patel and Mark Ramzy, sit down with host Althia Raj on the It's Political podcast. Listen to the whole episode and subscriber at http://www.thestar.com/itspolitical
As for the mixed emotions, the PM is probably on a group chat with world leaders of countries who once believed they were also U.S. allies. It's like discovering a BFF is trying to sleep with your wife and embezzle your RRSP.
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So now comes the hard part: Carney must pilot Canada through the extreme turbulence of the Most Idiotic Trade War in History and, as he put it in his acceptance speech, this 'American betrayal.'
'As I have been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,' said Carney, at risk of getting on a U.S. no-fly list. 'But these are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never ever happen.'
His resolve is admirable. Now Ottawa should take the fight to Washington.
On Tuesday, Trump celebrated the first 100 days of the most ghoulish sequel since 'Hellraiser: Revelations.' President Pinhead marked this milestone with the worst approval rating of any president in 80 years. And, somewhere, a half-soused Pete Hegseth was sharing classified military plans by belting them out at a karaoke bar as Kristi Noem twerked in Madonna cosplay while pantomiming a chihuahua shooting at point-blank range.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal Party won the federal election, but a historian said the issues swirling around the nation's southern neighbor persist. (AP video: Mike Householder / April 29, 2025)
Here's the cliché I want Carney to embrace: the best defence is a good offence.
During a recent podcast interview, he jokingly invited host Scott Galloway to move to Canada. This is actually a great idea. Carney should assemble a Brain Drain Task Force and put out a giant welcome mat for American scientists, professors, influencers, researchers, entertainers and anyone else who wants out of a banana republic that is about to triple the price at Banana Republic.
I hear from Americans every week. They are apologetic and in disbelief. They can't believe how quickly everything went sideways. They view their president as a Komodo dragon that keeps biting toddlers at a birthday party.
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News
Analysis
Why Mark Carney's election win sends strong message to Washington
Allan Woods
But this Trump poison is an opportunity for Canada.
The parent company of CBS is meddling with '60 Minutes' to protect a desired corporate merger? Fine, CBC should hire everyone at that venerable newsmagazine and start a new '90 Minutes.' You think Trump hasn't instructed his lapdogs at the IRS to target Taylor Swift? She should move to Toronto. This is something several American luminaries have already done, including Yale historian Timothy Snyder, author of the brilliant 'On Tyranny.'
Hollywood is mired with regulatory snafus in California? We should offer new tax credits and incentivize migration to create an enduring Hollywood North. Trump wants our resources? Let's take America's brightest minds, the ones who hate his guts. Trump's war on expertise means 99 per cent of the Harvard org chart would gladly relocate to Montreal or Vancouver.
Invite them. Make it easy-peasy. Fight America by co-opting America.
Why are we letting Trump dictate the terms of our breakup? We didn't sign a prenup with this abusive spouse. If he wants to ramble incoherently about turning Canada into 'the 51st state,' let's poach America's top cancer researchers and experts in climate change.
As he tanks today's global economy, let's draft America's captains of industry to help build our tomorrow. Everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos clearly now has buyer's remorse after sucking up to a dipstick who turned out to be bad for business. I bet you Melania dreams of starting over in Manitoba. At this point, even Elon Musk must regret leaving Canada.
The best defence is a good offence. Carney should dangle opportunities and passports and the promise of fast-tracked citizenship to every American mover and shaker. They'd all prefer to live under Carney instead of a carny barker.
Roll out the red-and-white welcome mat.
After just 100 days, Trump has turned America into the Bay: the closing sale is here and Carney should scoop up discounted buys. Trump is selling the next generation of whiz kids? We'll take some. Trump has no use for culture that does not blindly cheer on his incompetence? We'll take some. He can keep Fox News and we'll take some of everything else.
Mark Carney is already smarter than Donald Trump.
Now he needs to be more ruthless.
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Toronto Star
23 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Mounties, drones, fences, and even children get deployed to keep world leaders safe as the G7 comes to the mountains
KANANASKIS, ALTA — When the yellow school bus came to a halt this morning, Emily Marinelli, 12, wasn't convinced she was going to enjoy this. But now she's in the swing of things. She adjusts her safety gloves and jams the shears that are half her height into the base of a bush, lopping off a buffalo berry branch with an authoritative thwack. 'We're cutting them down so that they don't have to euthanize or kill the bears,' she said, holding out a severed branch, her safety goggles perched on her pink-streaked hair. Drawn in equal parts to forest and sunlight, the berry bushes often grow alongside road and trails, acting as the gateway snack that draws grizzlies and black bears out of the trees and into the path of humans. Sometimes even high-profile humans. 'We're in the area where the G7 is going to be,' she explains, waving at the mountains behind her. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW This G7 legacy project deploys Grade 6 students to help cut down berry bushes that could attract bears. The gathering was always going to be high stakes. It's set against the backdrop of a volatile American-driven trade war and high-profile conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. Leaders from the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Italy will be in attendance, and of course, U.S. President Donald Trump. Host countries also have the right to invite others — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to attend, while Carney's government has also reached out to leaders whose invitations raised controversy, including India's Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia's Mohammad bin Salman. The Grade 6 students aren't the first line of defence against bears for the meeting. Their particular G7 project is largely educational: these bushes won't produce berries until fall, after the leaders are back home, and in any case, a newly constructed eight-foot fence now surrounds the hotel hosting the summit. But even having to consider bear intrusion plans is part of what makes hosting the G7 in Kananaskis — which will mean welcoming upwards of 5,000 people to a small wilderness refuge and surrounding areas — such a Herculean logistical task. It's one of the biggest security jobs the RCMP has ever faced — one that includes guarding against everything from cybersecurity threats to protesters to lack of cell reception to yes, bears. 'If we were doing this in Toronto, like the 2010 G20, that has its own challenges,' says RCMP Chief Supt. David Hall, the director of the interagency team that has been planning security measures for the meeting for almost a year. (The gathering in Toronto saw massive antiglobalization protests that, while largely peaceful, also saw storefronts smashed and police cars torched. Hundreds were arrested.) G20 summit protesters clash with riot police in downtown Toronto on Saturday, June 26, 2010. Darren Calabrese THE CANADIAN PRESS 'If you talked to those planners they'd probably say, 'man, I wish I could do it in a remote area, maybe a little bit more secluded,' Hall said. 'You just manage the challenge you're faced with.' Of course, isolation may be partially the point. This will be a repeat performance for Kananaskis, which hosted the then-G8 in 2002. (Russia is no longer in the group, rendering the G8 a G7.) There had been fiery protests at the summit in Italy the year prior and the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center had fed fears of terrorism. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien switched the location from Ottawa to get back to basics but also because, as political scientist John Kirton wrote that year, Kananaskis was 'difficult for civil society protesters and terrorists to get to and easy for security forces to defend.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Anyone who ventured closer, he added, 'are more likely to require search and rescue services from the Canadian Armed Forces standing guard than to inflict any other inconvenience on them.' Covering a swath of hills and mountains between Calgary and Banff National Park, Kananaskis Country is roughly two-thirds the size of the Greater Toronto Area. The meetings themselves are being held in Kananaskis Village (though the word 'village' might be overstating the case, slightly) which includes a hotel, golf course and nordic spa. There are mountain ranges on all sides, little to no local services, and mostly neighbours of the four-legged variety. Contributors Opinion Jaime Watt: Mark Carney is setting the tone for the G7 and he knows the cost of playing it safe is irrelevance Jaime Watt If you're not looking to climb a mountain, the only access is to leave the Trans-Canada Highway and travel 20 minutes down a two-lane highway that caps speed at 90 km/hour, in part because of the erratic way the road curves and dips through the mountain valley, and in part because of the deer and bighorn sheep and bear that regularly wander into the road. In a boon to local hikers and canoe paddlers, cell reception has been installed on the road, which was previously largely a communications black hole. 'It's a lot of geography to secure, an we have plans that enable us to do that, and we've invested in a lot of different technology that will help secure that space and give us that situational awareness,' Hall says. A black bear roams the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. Christian Baum In the days before this year's G7, the patio tables were tarped over and the spa pools at the hotel sat empty, the tranquility of a pond between buildings interrupted only by two men in reflective vests debating where to place the sections of fence stacked on the back of their pickup. Staffers in G7 lanyards perused the plaid sweaters at the still-open gift shop. As the summit approaches, an escalating series of security measures have been put in place, with a local ski area, nearby hiking trails and even a few benches with a scenic view of the river blocked off by yellow tape. The Royal Canadian Air Force has been flying helicopters over the trees at night. The pine trees around the hotel are now dotted with security cameras mounted with shiny new screws and hikers in the area have reported venturing into the forest only to run into the military. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'The remoteness affects accommodations, so all the security personnel need somewhere to sleep and eat,' Hall says. 'We've had to take measures around supplying food and water to our folks, and then factoring in the time if they're commuting from hotels and other communities, what does that do to their shifts and how long they're working? And that affects the number of people we need.' One hotel isn't enough to house everyone, so many participants will be staying in Calgary and the town of Banff, which is an hour away. (If one wonders about the ability of a single hotel to cater to almost a dozen of the most influential people on earth, all presumably accustomed to presidential accommodations, Hall says they will not be commenting on where, exactly, everyone will be sleeping.) But when it comes to getting staff out to Kananaskis, Hall says they've had to stock up on food and water for staff and factor in the travel time from Calgary or Banff when planning out shifts. It's also a challenging location for those looking to express dissent. Protesters won't be able to get to the actual summit location. Designated protest zones have been set up in Calgary and Banff, though the RCMP says the protesters' message will be ' broadcast ' to the G7 leaders. Some activist leaders have said that they have no desire to antagonize police but may not remain inside the zones — something they're not legally required to do. Less than a week before the summit, a controlled access zone is in place that will include a 14-kilometre stretch of road and the surrounding mountain ranges, restricting anyone from getting within several kilometres of the village, in a car or on foot. The day before meetings get underway, a no-fly zone will drop around both Kananaskis Village and the Calgary airport, inside of which unauthorized aircraft or drones risk interception by a Canadian Armed Forces F-18. None of which matters much to the animals that are already there. Both black bears and grizzlies are plentiful in the area where the G7 is being held. (They're particularly fond of the dandelions and other greenery around the golf course, bear experts say.) Among the security forces that will be on hand are conservation officers who be ready to deal with any rogue wildlife. The danger is not non-existent or exclusive to humans. The last time Kananaskis hosted, a bear got too close to the venue and, when officials tried to shoo it away, it fell out of a tree and was injured badly enough that it had to be euthanized. In addition to the fences, the locations of some local bears are monitored and wildlife officers will be standing by to 'haze' any problem bears out of the area by scaring them or ushering them along. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'If you just watch a bear do its normal thing, it's actually really nice,' says Miles Mackinnon, another Grade 6 student who has just used his clippers to make quick work of several buffalo berry bushes growing among the trees next to a parking lot near the G7 site. 'They're really graceful, and they walk really smoothly.' He's glad to be helping remove the berry bushes that risk drawing bears into contact with humans, which he hopes will allow the bears to live their lives peacefully without interference from people. The area makes sense for a serious meeting like this, because it's peaceful, he adds. At least until the motorcades arrive. 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Toronto Sun
34 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
Tariffs, wildfires and AI on the agenda as Canada hosts world leaders at G7
Published Jun 15, 2025 • 5 minute read A Canada flag, left, and an Alberta flag flap in the breeze with Wedge Mountain in the background at the site of the G7 Leaders meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, June 2, 2025. Photo by Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press via AP, file OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney has tried to pare down Canada's priorities as the G7 summit host, but there's still a lengthy list of global issues for leaders to discuss over the coming days. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'Leaders (will) meet at a moment of enormous flux globally, when tensions among G7 members are especially pronounced,' Carney's foreign policy adviser David Angell told a panel this week. He did not directly reference U.S. President Donald Trump, who famously walked out of the last G7 summit Canada hosted in 2018. Here's a look at what's on the agenda in Kananaskis, Alta., and what to expect. Economics On the formal agenda, the first discussion is about the 'global economic outlook,' followed by a working lunch on economic security and supply chains. Angell said this will include a discussion on 'anti-market practices by large, non-G7 economies.' China is among those countries accused of anti-market practices. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There's no doubt that important discussion of President Trump's tariff strategy will take place,' he added. John Kirton, head of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto, said the discussion will likely set the tone on how countries balance fiscal stimulus through tax cuts or possibly more defence spending along with cutting back deficits. He said leaders will need to navigate the difficult reality that Trump's tariffs are hurting economic growth and likely caused the downgrading of Washington's credit ratings. Leaders are set to discuss critical minerals, and Kirton said this might involve setting labour and environmental transparency standards for minerals acquired in fragile countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Sen. Peter Boehm, who played a central role in many G7 summits, said he expects Canada to raise the dysfunction of the World Trade Organization, though this might happen in an informal setting instead of part of the structured G7 meetings. The WTO's appeal body is the main global enforcer of resolutions in trade disputes, and it has been effectively stalled for years as the U.S. blocks the appointment of panel members, following frustration of how the WTO has ruled against Washington. In 2018, Canada launched the Ottawa Group, a committee urging WTO reform made up of more than a dozen economies ranging from Kenya to Norway, but it has had limited success. Wildfires and foreign interference The second session taking place Monday will involve safety, particularly wildfires, foreign interference and transnational crime. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Canada is set to release a Kananaskis Wildfire Charter, spanning mitigation, response and recovery. Kirton said discussion around the document will focus on 'equipment interoperability' to allow G7 members to support each other during emergencies, as well as the use of satellite imagery to fight wildfires. He said the topic has become 'a burning issue' in part because wildfires in places like Los Angeles and across the Prairies show how the threat is relevant to Washington and its G7 peers. Leaders might try to raise climate change, but Kirton doubts that phrase will appear in any closing statements, with Trump pushing back on the topic. A brief circulated among G7 planners from various countries originally included the term 'countering migrant smuggling and drug trafficking' but Kirton noted that the term did not appear in later drafts. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Kirton said he expects leaders to discuss tighter co-operation in combating the drug trade, given that the U.S. concern over opioids matches concerns other countries have about heroin trafficking. 'Making the world secure' The topic title of the Monday working dinner is broad. While such a session would normally involve conflicts in Israel and the Palestinian territories, North Korea and Sudan, analysts expect that recent strikes between Israel and Iran will dominate this discussion. Ukrainian sovereignty Tuesday's working breakfast will come after G7 leaders have a chance to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and amid concerns from other G7 members that the U.S. might sign a deal from Russia that only encourages further invasion of European countries. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. After that, G7 leaders have a larger meeting with the invited guests, which so far includes leaders of Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Ukraine, NATO, the United Nations and the World Bank. It's unclear whether Canada's bid to raise issues of foreign interference will come up in talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government the RCMP has linked to extortion, coercion and homicide cases. In January, the foreign interference inquiry's final report said 'India is the second most active' threat actor, which is 'clandestinely providing illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians in an attempt to secure the election of pro-India candidates or gain influence.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Tuesday afternoon's discussion is set to include making energy affordable and creating the infrastructure needed to diversify of energy sources. Angell said 'a number of key leaders' visiting the summit as guests will be part of the talks. Carney's office has said Canada is seeking coalitions with reliable partners to open new markets, and generate large infrastructure investments. AI and quantum tech Carney's office says G7 leaders will discuss 'using artificial intelligence and quantum to unleash economic growth,' though it's not clear where in the schedule this will take place. Experts say quantum computing could rapidly speed up processing times and allow for more accurate or efficient tasks. But they say cryptography might be needed to prevent powerful quantum computers from breaking power grids and banking systems. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Kirton said the discussion will likely include discussion on how to include developing countries in the gains of AI and how it can boost the efficiency of government bureaucracies and business of all sizes. Something useful — and Canadian While federal officials have warned that the summit will unlikely end with a lengthy communique that has been part of almost every other G7 summit, Boehm has faith Canada will still deliver points of consensus that liberal democracies can act on. Last month, finance ministers and central bankers agreed on action around cyber threats to the financial sector and the need to assess the possibilities and risks posed by artificial intelligence. In March, foreign ministers pledged to focus on maritime security, a topic that affects all G7 countries who also happen to share three oceans with Canada, giving grounds to look at everything from unregistered vessels undermining sanctions to illegal fishing and threats to undersea fibre-optic cables. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. These were largely seen as ways to bridge the growing gap between Europe and the U.S. and focus on shared goals. It's a skill G7 allies turn to Canada for, sometimes literally, in the middle of the night. 'There's often come a time, usually at three in the morning or something, where someone will look at me, or whoever is in the Canadian chair and say … 'it's time for the great Canadian initiative to compromise, and get this thing done.' So we do add value,' Boehm said. Read More Sunshine Girls Golf Editorial Cartoons Sports World
Toronto Sun
43 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
U.K. PM Starmer in Ottawa to talk trade, Middle East conflict with Carney ahead of G7
Published Jun 15, 2025 • 1 minute read Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomes Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of a bilateral meeting at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, on June 14, 2025, on the eve of the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies town of Kananaskis. Photo by Stefan Rousseau pool / AFP via Getty Images OTTAWA — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney today before the two leaders leave for the G7 leaders' summit in Alberta. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account He will meet Carney this morning in his West Block office on Parliament Hill before both leaders fly separately to Calgary. Last night, Starmer had dinner with Carney at his official residence at Rideau Cottage, later taking in the hockey game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers. Starmer's visit comes as Canada seeks to reopen trade talks with the U.K. which were paused early in 2024, leaving in place a temporary deal signed after Brexit. There's a sticking point around Britain wanting to ban exports of hormone-treated beef from Canada and calls from British farmers to export more cheese to Canada's protected dairy sector. The conflict in the Middle East is likely also on the agenda after the exchange of missiles between Israel and Iran and both countries call for de-escalation while affirming Israel's right to defence. Starmer says he has positioned British jets for 'contingency support in the region,' The Associated Press reports. Last month both leaders joined French President Emmanuel Macron to sign a strongly worded statement about Israel's restrictions on food aid reaching the Gaza Strip. Read More Sunshine Girls Golf Editorial Cartoons Sports World
