Trump acts, Carney talks, but is anyone listening...

Canada just isn't the player on the world stage that we used to be.

Iran just did something incredibly stupid in bombing Qatar. They aimed missiles at the American military base there, but in doing so they have not only attack Qatar but also the United States.

Don’t think for a moment that Trump will not retaliate.

No one wants this war except the mullahs in Tehran, who hopefully will be turfed from power by their own people soon. Yes, the Islamic Republic of Iran needs regime change but it should come from inside, not from outside forces like the Americans.

The regime in Iran is isolated, they have no friends in the region. What they should have done was put their weapons down and engage in real negotiations to give up their plans for a nuclear bomb.

Donald Trump has put an offer on the table, give up your nuke program and join the civilized world in a trading relationship that would make the people of Iran flourish.

It seems the radicals leading Iran would clearly prefer having nuclear weapons to giving their people a better life. All of this makes it more difficult to negotiate with them, their religious fervor makes them sure that they are right, their track record of lying for the past several decades makes it impossible to believe they will adhere to any agreement.

If Carney speaks in a forest does anybody hear...

Canada’s voice just doesn’t matter on the world stage these days, so all of these statements by Prime Minister Mark Carney don’t really have any impact. That’s not a criticism of Carney himself; it’s just how irrelevant Canada has become over the last decade.

Carney is in Brussels for the NATO meeting and posted this to X in the middle of the night before Iran attacked Qatar.

“I spoke with President Trump overnight. We focused on de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East, our shared commitment to a stronger NATO at this week’s summit, and the progress in the ongoing trade negotiations between our countries,” Carney said.

Once upon a time, when Canada spoke, it mattered. We have spent far too long riding on American coattails, not equipping our military, and not engaging in serious diplomacy.

We once had a significant military, we once had a powerful diplomatic corps. All of that has rotted away.

As my friend David Jacobs keeps pointing out, that is all gone now and that means Carney’s statements are really for domestic consumption.

Perhaps this changes under Carney as we boost defence spending and engage in a diplomacy based on substance and not the PM’s socks or his costume changes. Given the last decade, it will take a lot of work.

A questionable appointment…

Carney has just extended the term of our Ambassador in Washington, Kristen Hillman. He’s also appointed Hillman as Canada’s chief negotiator with the United States for trade negotiations, making her the counter part to Jamieson Greer, Trump’s Trade Representative.

Everyone I know who has worked with Hillman sings her praises, in public at least.

There are grumblings though about her ability to deal with on the ground politics in Washington. She’s been described to me as an impediment to a deal and as someone who insists on getting into the weeds even as the Americans look for a very high-level deal.

All of this is why I wrote a column a while back calling for our next ambassador to Washington to be a politician. I even gave several names but ultimately said that my pick would be Ontario cabinet minister Caroline Mulroney.

With no animosity towards her, because I don’t know her, Hillman should have been replaced, not extended.

Life in a war zone...

On the Full Comment Podcast, which I host, I had a chance to speak with two great Canadians last Friday about life in a war zone.

As I explain in the podcast, the plans were quite difficult to put together.

We had hoped to speak to Jonathan Conricus, but he and his family had to head to a bomb shelter. My chat with Adam Zivo was delayed due to his time in a shelter in Jerusalem and Vivian Bercovici had to join me from the safe room in her home as Iran launched another attack.

One of Vivian’s criticisms of Canada’s response to all of this was how useless the Canadian embassy has been. That claim is supported by this Canadian Press story on how we have just started busing people out of Israel days after our allies did.

What to read…

Speaking of Adam Zivo, he has a piece in National Post on how Israelis reacted to the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. As you can imagine, there was a lot of happiness.

You can’t help but hear the claims that Canada is built on stolen land. Historian Nigel Biggar, who I’ve interviewed on Full Comment in the past, has a column dispelling that idea which he says isn’t based in fact.

I’ve spoken and written about the folly of the EV mandate and my audience agrees. That’s why it’s important that my friend Flavio Volpe is writing in the Toronto Star today with a message they need to hear - the EV mandate will harm the auto industry.