True leadership is measured by action, not words.

Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney struck the tone of a thoughtful statesman at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

His January speech was greeted with the sort of reverent approval reserved for leaders who sound serious about global responsibility.

Carney’s appearance at Davos was also meant, I suspect, to signal that Canada would be a modest, moderating force in a chaotic, tumultuous world.

He warned of the perils of geopolitical brinkmanship. He spoke about restraint. He urged the world’s most powerful governments to resist the easy seduction of reckless escalation.

Only weeks later, Carney’s address reads less like a statement of principle and conviction and more like a cynical, disposable work of bad fiction.

In a predictable volte-face, Carney has backed an illegal war that he had implied prudent powers should avoid launching.

The war on Iran — being prosecuted by an emboldened American president and an Israeli prime minister allergic to nuance, diplomacy, and restraint — bears all the blatant trademarks of the impulsive thinking Carney claimed to mistrust.

The flimsy construct that Canada’s prime minister is the nascent guardian of measured statecraft dissolved instantly after he confirmed that, like many of his compliant predecessors, when Washington whistles, Ottawa salutes.

The old, familiar instinct remains comfortably intact.

For a leader who entered politics with a reputation for sober analysis — forged during his time at the Bank........

© Al Jazeera