BEXTE: Carney’s WEF speech was insane, but it sounded smart
At last, they could parade a leader with a vocabulary and reading list impressive enough to clear the low bar set by recent Liberal leadership.
Mark Carney’s speech to the World Economic Forum had Liberal partisans frothing at the mouth. At last, they could parade a leader with a vocabulary and reading list impressive enough to clear the low bar set by recent Liberal leadership.
The substance, however, was empty.
Carney lamented that the rules-based international order is fraying. That American reliability can no longer be assumed. That economic integration is increasingly weaponized. That middle powers like Canada are more exposed than they were a generation ago.
None of this is controversial. Conservatives have been warning about it for years.
Where Carney immediately loses the plot is what he proposes next.
If this diagnosis had been followed by serious proposals to increase military recruitment tenfold, fortify the High Arctic, expand domestic arms production, or even openly debate nuclear deterrence, one could at least respect the seriousness of the response. Those would be hard conversations. They would carry costs. They would signal that Canada intends to survive in a dangerous world.
