Tainted, Self-Serving Advice : From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

"[There is danger when middle powers like Canada remain silent or close their economies while] hegemons [and superpowers tear away at the] rules-based international order."

"More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited."

"Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu."

"Apply the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window."

"A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable."

"When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating."

"This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination."

"[Canada is stable, democratic and] a pluralistic society that works".

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. (Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press)

 

At a plenary session of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Canada's prime minister delivered a speech that should have left listeners speechless at the level of its hypocrisy. This is a man who just visited Beijing, cap in hand, to grovel before Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, none other than one of the two hegemons that Mr. Carney spoke of, yet daintily bypassed naming, lest he raise the hackles of a man with whom he had just signed a trade agreement that would allow 50,000 Chinese-produced EVs into Canada for starters, in exchange for better tariff rates for Canadian canola and hogs.

 

Mark Carney — pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping — reached a 'landmark' trade deal with China on Friday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters)

 

The advanced electronics in those Chinese-made EVs will enter Canada at a new low tariff rate to undersell Canadian-produced gas-powered vehicles, the former more or less dumped as excess production hugely financed by the Chinese state to keep prices low. Each one of these vehicles also represents a listening device, immensely useful to a state known for its cyber-intrusion into other countries' affairs as well as its penchant for illegally lifting trade secrets in technical advances, military and political eavesdropping to keep Beijing up-to-date on everything from production assets to nation security.

 

"Today I will talk about the breakdown of the world order, about the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the superpowers is not subject to any constraints", he began his speech. Yet, on behalf of Canada, the Liberal government of which Mr. Carney is head, chose to strike a trade agreement with a clearly hostile-to-Canada hegemon, one which has over the years interfered in Canadian elections, harassed expatriate Chinese-Canadians to act on Beijing's behalf, and invested in universities in 'shared' research projects backed by the People's Liberation Army.

 

Mr. Carney's previous life as a global banker and his executive-level work as vice-chairman with Brookfield Asset Management which has billions in investment in Chinese real estate also means he has a vested interest in trade relations with China, since his contacts there will remember  how he steered Canada back into China's trade orbit, and when he leaves government he can just pick up where he left off, with Brookfield Management. His shares in the massive real estate giant stand to gain value with the decisive trade moves he engages in -- in 'Canada's interest'.

 

Carney, with Brookfield Asset Management, in business with China. March 2024, The Telegraph

 

Speaking in Davis to an estimated several hundred politicians, business leaders and journalists on the first day of the annual gathering, he appears to have impressed his audience. An audience which, like Canada itself, has most recently witnessed the president of the United States of America's whimsical decision-making in imposing stiff tariffs on goods and services from allies and foes alike, aggressively declaring that America will no longer financially support other nations' economies at the cost of its own. For them, his speech resonated.

 

The lack of conscience and immorality of responding to the aggression of one hegemon who has roiled world markets, by choosing to do business with another one that seeks to control world markets after having destroyed production in those markets through the use of their own techniques upgrading China's to produce lower-cost consumer goods isn't being questioned at Davos. Nor that in choosing China as a trade partner its human rights abuses must be overlooked in favour of making deals. 

 

At one time, this former central banker was on the World Economic Forum's top governing body; he knows to whom he speaks. Cautioning his audience against negotiating with superpowers, Mr. Carney revealed the extent of his hypocrisy in his craven submission to Beijing's grasping rules. Other countries, he said, should follow Canada's example to forge new international relations to boost their economies and diversify trading partners. In this way they will be seen as an investment destination. This, from a man and a political party that has closed off Canada's vast natural resources in gas and oil, leading to investment leaving Canada. 

 

Carney inspecting the honour guard. It's the first visit by a Canadian PM since China detained two Canadians for nearly three years starting in 2019, in retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)