On Western alienation, Preston Manning is not backing down
Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, is banking on people's fears about the desperate nature of our present situation. And he's promising to save Canadians from the apocalypse heading our way, triggered, not by climate change, but by Donald Trump's up-ending of world order.
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A 2025 report released by the federal government's in-house think tank — Policy Horizons Canada — reinforces Carney's dystopian warnings, with dire predictions of disillusioned youth living in a country with rising inequality, inaccessible housing and a broken promise of meritocracy.
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'The cheapest, quickest way to get public support for a public policy today is to scare the hell out of people,' says Preston Manning. That's what these consultants to political parties will tell you, says the former leader of the Reform Party and a former leader of the Opposition.
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This use of fear as a motivator, Preston asserts, has been the 'Liberals' modus operandi now for over 10 years.'
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'There was fear in the pandemic,' he says, that motivated people to obey health guidance. 'Fear of climate catastrophe is the fundamental motivator behind a lot of green initiatives,' he continues, 'and now this fear of Trump.'
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Consider Carney's concluding remarks during the leaders' debate, Preston says, with a shake of his head. 'When asked to give a one-minute statement, he actually said Trump wants to take over your country, which is complete nonsense and not possible.' (Preston has a full legal explanation, for those who are interested.)
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With less than one week to the federal election, I reach out to Preston at his Calgary home for a virtual tete-a-tete on the state of the nation. Sitting up tall with arms crossed, casually dressed in a green and blue plaid shirt, the April sunlight streaming through tall windows behind him, this is not a man beleaguered by his critics.
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In early April, Preston unleashed the hounds with an op-ed warning Canadians that the election of another four years of a Liberal government could precipitate a national unity problem in Canada. B.C. Premier David Eby discounts the risk, calling it a 'tired trope.' And journalist Andrew Coyne discredits the idea there is a real problem with secession, accusing Preston of threatening Canadians with a rubber knife held to their throats.
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But Preston — the man who once told us 'the West wants in' — isn't backing down. If the Liberals are re-elected, he reiterates, the West may be motivated to find a way out of Confederation. What he's recommending is a legitimate forum for disgruntled westerners to be able to express their anger.
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Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Carney travels to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO
Prime Minister Mark Carney will depart for Europe on Sunday for back-to-back summits where he is expected to make major commitments for Canada on security and defence. Carney will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Defence Minister David McGuinty and secretary of state for defence procurement Stephen Fuhr at the EU and NATO summits, where military procurement and diversifying supply chains will top the agendas. The international meetings come as Canada looks to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the United States due to strained relations over tariffs and President Donald Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state. Carney will fly first to Brussels, Belgium, starting the trip with a visit to the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery where 348 Canadian soldiers are buried. He will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Story continues below advertisement At the EU-Canada summit, Anand and McGuinty are expected to sign a security and defence agreement with the EU in what one European official described Friday as one of the most ambitious deals Europe has ever signed with a third country. The agreement will open the door to Canada's participation in the ReArm Europe initiative, allowing Canada to access a 150-billion-euro loan program for defence procurement, called Security Action for Europe. An EU official briefing reporters on Friday said once the procurement deal is in place, Canada will have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the European Commission to begin discussions with member states about procurement opportunities. A Canadian official briefing reporters on the summit Saturday said the initial agreement will allow for Canada's participation in some joint procurement projects. However, a second agreement will be needed to allow Canadian companies to bid. 1:48 Carney to increase U.S. steel, aluminum tariffs if trade talks with Trump stall At the EU-Canada summit, leaders are also expected to issue a joint statement to underscore a willingness for continued pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions, and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Story continues below advertisement After Brussels, Carney heads to The Hague in the Netherlands for the NATO leaders' summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy There, Carney will meet with the King of the Netherlands and later with leaders of Nordic nations to discuss Arctic and transatlantic security. At the NATO summit, Carney will take part in bilateral meetings with other leaders. The summit agenda includes a social dinner hosted by the king and queen of the Netherlands and a two-and-a-half hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council. NATO allies are expected to debate a plan to hike alliance members' defence spending target to five per cent of national GDP. NATO data shows that in 2024, none of its 32 members spent that much. The Canadian government official who briefed reporters on background says the spending target and its timeline are still up for discussion, though some allies have indicated they would prefer a seven-year timeline while others favour a decade. Canada hasn't hit a five- per- cent defence spending threshhold since the 1950s and hasn't reached the two per cent mark since the late 1980s. NATO says that, based on its estimate of which expenditures count toward the target, Canada spent $41 billion in 2024 on defence, or 1.37 per cent of GDP. That's more than twice what it spent in 2014, when the two per cent target was first set; that year, Canada spent $20.1 billion, or 1.01 per cent of GDP, on defence. Story continues below advertisement In 2014, only three NATO members achieved the two per cent target — the U.S., the U.K., and Greece. In 2025, all members are expected to hit it. Any agreement to adopt a new spending benchmark must be ratified by all 32 NATO member states. Former Canadian ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck told The Canadian Press the condensed agenda is likely meant to 'avoid public rifts among allies,' describing Trump as an 'uncertainty engine.' 'The national security environment has really, really shifted,' Buck said, adding allies next door to Russia face the greatest threats. 'There is a high risk that the U.S. would undercut NATO at a time where all allies are increasingly vulnerable.' Trump has suggested the U.S. might abandon its mutual defence commitment to the alliance if member countries don't ramp up defence spending. Story continues below advertisement 'Whatever we can do to get through this NATO summit with few public rifts between the U.S. and other allies on anything, and satisfy a very long-standing U.S. demand to rebalance defence spending, that will be good for Canada because NATO's good for Canada,' Buck said. Carney has already made two trips to Europe this year — the first to London and Paris to meet with European allies and the second to Rome to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Belarus activist imprisoned after trying to run for president released after serving 5 years
Social Sharing Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a leading Belarus opposition figure, was freed on Saturday after more than five years in prison, in the most significant move so far by President Alexander Lukashenko to try to ease his isolation from the West. The 46-year-old was driven across the border into Lithuania for an emotional reunion with his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the exiled Belarus opposition. The Lithuanian government said 13 other prisoners were also released and taken there following talks between Lukashenko and U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg. In total, five Belarusians were freed along with three Poles, two Latvians, two Japanese citizens, one Estonian and one Swede. Tsikhanouski was seen emerging from a van with a shaven head, smiling and immediately stepping up to hug his wife in a long embrace, a video released by her office showed. "It's hard to describe the joy in my heart," she said. Franak Viacorka, Tsikhanouskaya's chief political adviser, told Reuters that Tsikhanouski had lost weight and his health suffered. He said he "looks like a different person," but was in good spirits and had joked with U.S. officials. Viacorka said Tsikhanouski had described "horrible things that happened to him, but he's not broken ... He wants to continue fighting." In a post on X, Tsikhanouskaya thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as Kellogg and others for their efforts to secure her husband's release. Lukashenko has been shunned by the West for years after brutally crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020 and then allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin, his close ally, to launch part of his 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory. In the past year, he has freed more than 300 prisoners in what political analysts see as the start of an attempt to restore relations with Western governments and seek an easing of international sanctions against Belarus. Opposition politician Maria Kalesnikava and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski are the most prominent of those who remain behind bars. "We're not done," Tsikhanouskaya wrote, calling for the release of a further 1,150 prisoners. Lukashenko issued pardons for all those released on Saturday in response to a U.S. request, said his spokesperson, Natalya Eismont. In a statement, she said the Belarusians who were freed had been "convicted of extremist and terrorist activity." She said the decision to release Tsikhanouski was "taken by the president strictly on humanitarian considerations with the aim of family reunification." Eismont said Kellogg's talks with Lukashenko had begun on Friday evening and lasted 6½ hours over dinner, covering the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East, relations between Russia, Belarus and China, and sanctions policy. "It was night when it ended," she said. "The subjects discussed were as current as can be imagined. They talked about things that concern the entire world." Reuters reported on Tuesday that Kellogg, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Belarus in years, saw his mission as one that could help jumpstart peace talks aimed at ending Russia's war against Ukraine. Among those released by Belarus was Ihar Karnei, a former journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, RFE/RL president and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement thanking Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. Viacorka said the freed individuals had no idea where they were going when they were taken from their cells. "They were handcuffed, brought to cars, brought to the border. They were surprised, they didn't know who released them, why they were released, what was happening. It was so nice to see the happiness in their eyes." On arrival in Lithuania, they were taken to the U.S. Embassy, ate pizza and drank coke, and were given mobile phones so they could speak to their families for the first time in years, he said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the release was "fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka (sic) regime." "The free world needs you, Siarhei!" Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X. Tsikhanouski, a video blogger, was arrested in 2020 while planning to run for president against Lukashenko, and convicted the following year of organizing mass unrest and inciting social hatred. He was sentenced to 19½ years, one of the longest jail terms in modern Belarusian history. His supporters said the charges were fabricated and politically motivated. Sviatlana ran in the election in his place, and mass protests broke out after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory and the opposition and Western governments accused him of rigging the result. Viacorka said Tsikhanouski's release would spur the exiled opposition.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Carney travelling to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney will depart for Europe on Sunday for back-to-back summits where he is expected to make major commitments for Canada on security and defence. Carney will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Defence Minister David McGuinty and secretary of state for defence procurement Stephen Fuhr at the EU and NATO summits, where military procurement and diversifying supply chains will top the agendas. The international meetings come as Canada looks to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the United States due to strained relations over tariffs and President Donald Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state. Carney will fly first to Brussels, Belgium, starting the trip with a visit to the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery where 348 Canadian soldiers are buried. He will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. At the EU-Canada summit, Anand and McGuinty are expected to sign a security and defence agreement with the EU in what one European official described Friday as one of the most ambitious deals Europe has ever signed with a third country. The agreement will open the door to Canada's participation in the ReArm Europe initiative, allowing Canada to access a 150-billion-euro loan program for defence procurement, called Security Action for Europe. An EU official briefing reporters on Friday said once the procurement deal is in place, Canada will have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the European Commission to begin discussions with member states about procurement opportunities. A Canadian official briefing reporters on the summit Saturday said the initial agreement will allow for Canada's participation in some joint procurement projects. However, a second agreement will be needed to allow Canadian companies to bid. At the EU-Canada summit, leaders are also expected to issue a joint statement to underscore a willingness for continued pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions, and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. After Brussels, Carney heads to The Hague in the Netherlands for the NATO leaders' summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. There, Carney will meet with the King of the Netherlands and later with leaders of Nordic nations to discuss Arctic and transatlantic security. At the NATO summit, Carney will take part in bilateral meetings with other leaders. The summit agenda includes a social dinner hosted by the king and queen of the Netherlands and a two-and-a-half hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council. NATO allies are expected to debate a plan to hike alliance members' defence spending target to five per cent of national GDP. NATO data shows that in 2024, none of its 32 members spent that much. The Canadian government official who briefed reporters on background says the spending target and its timeline are still up for discussion, though some allies have indicated they would prefer a seven-year timeline while others favour a decade. Canada hasn't hit a five- per- cent defence spending threshhold since the 1950s and hasn't reached the two per cent mark since the late 1980s. NATO says that, based on its estimate of which expenditures count toward the target, Canada spent $41 billion in 2024 on defence, or 1.37 per cent of GDP. That's more than twice what it spent in 2014, when the two per cent target was first set; that year, Canada spent $20.1 billion, or 1.01 per cent of GDP, on defence. In 2014, only three NATO members achieved the two per cent target — the U.S., the U.K., and Greece. In 2025, all members are expected to hit it. Any agreement to adopt a new spending benchmark must be ratified by all 32 NATO member states. Former Canadian ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck told The Canadian Press the condensed agenda is likely meant to 'avoid public rifts among allies,' describing Trump as an 'uncertainty engine.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'The national security environment has really, really shifted,' Buck said, adding allies next door to Russia face the greatest threats. 'There is a high risk that the U.S. would undercut NATO at a time where all allies are increasingly vulnerable.' Trump has suggested the U.S. might abandon its mutual defence commitment to the alliance if member countries don't ramp up defence spending. 'Whatever we can do to get through this NATO summit with few public rifts between the U.S. and other allies on anything, and satisfy a very long-standing U.S. demand to rebalance defence spending, that will be good for Canada because NATO's good for Canada,' Buck said. Carney has already made two trips to Europe this year — the first to London and Paris to meet with European allies and the second to Rome to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2025.
