NORTHERN LIGHTS - Canadians Want Carney to Fight Trump
Written by SP Editor
As Trump renamed Lake Ontario and levied tariffs on Canada for wildfire smoke spilling across the 49th parallel, Canadians have once again wrapped themselves in the Canadian flag, which really may as well be a Liberal Party of Canada banner. Mark Carney and his natural governing party are on their game, the rest of us are dazed and confused.
Electorally, there is not a viable alternative. On one side, the Conservatives are torn, with a good third of their supporters actually liking Trump. On the other side is the beleaguered NDP, led by new dynamic leader Avi Lewis. Lewis, who had the ACORN Canada convention roaring in approval in June, won’t run in byelections because he knows he can't win.
One terrifying fact is that the strongest opposition to Carney is likely in Alberta, whose ridiculous but legitimate separatist movement is led by people who really do want to be the 51st state, allowing the United Conservative Premier Daniel Smith to somehow play the moderate.
It should come as no surprise that the nation building proposed by Carney has more than just a business tilt. As a former banker, the corporate world is his natural habitat, so he is looking like the leader of the free world and has been given a mandate for massive change.
The question is what the rest of us have been able to accomplish in the face of this political reality.
ACORN has helped lead nationally in making the preservation of existing affordable housing a priority for the government. The goal was to have the government use massive payments to the provinces as leverage to ensure that tenant housing is protected with new national housing standards, or money would not flow. The outcome has been Carney rolling back the meagre affordable housing measures that Trudeau put in place for provinces to receive money — that change was forced by none other than Daniel Smith.
Environmental groups, valiantly but with as little success, have pushed to stop the expansion of fossil fuels in Canada, specifically liquified natural gas.
Private sector unions have had success in getting the federal government to change procurement rules so that materials used in nation building projects are made in Canada with unionized workers. These wins fit into Carney’s nation building viewpoint. They are essentially corporate bailouts that ensure that good jobs continue to exist in Canada.
At the ACORN Convention, Lewis drew enthusiastic approval when he used his wife Naomi Klein’s shock doctrine to describe what Carney is doing to Canada amid the chaos created by Trump. He then spoke about the Major Projects Office created by Carney, and how it can deem a project in the national interest, allowing it to override long-standing environmental regulations and replace them with a much quicker process for approving the project. It’s shocking, but less shocking than Trump’s threats on the country.
Understanding this new reality is vital to developing an effective opposition to it. There are two types of opposition happening on our side: those standing in front of the wave in attempts to stop it, and those proposing new ideas. It may not be the time for either. We can’t sit in denial that Canadians want Carney to fight Trump and that, while not fully understanding it, they are in support of his massive nation-building agenda.
To thread the needle, we may need to develop demands by reacting to what Carney is giving us. We can oppose the very bad while also conceding defeat, and focus attention on making the best out of the massive public investment that is taking place.
John Anderson is the Field Director for ACORN Canada and over two decades has played key roles in building ACORN across the country.
One example is the major new grid upgrades that have been announced that will interconnect the country east to west and lessen our connection with our southern neighbors. We can embrace the contradiction of Carney’s energy plans. We can state that they are overdependent on fossil fuels and their obscene companies while focusing demands on ratepayers getting access to energy upgrades, cooling, and affordable bills. At the same time, we can develop new models of public control over clean energy in our communities and push the government to follow through on its promises of a transition away from fossil fuels.
It’s shock and awe in Canada, and it’s not just Trump doing it. Trump’s threats have turned national security and nation building sovereignty projects into trump cards for Carney. Unless we adapt quickly and strategically, and develop effective campaigns around what is being thrown at us, we risk losing more ground and allowing this massive moment of public investment to pass us by.
