Terence Corcoran: Could it become President Rubio and Prime Minister Poilievre? |
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Terence Corcoran: Could it become President Rubio and Prime Minister Poilievre?
It's a long shot, but both politicians are on the same anti-Carney page
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Prime Minister Mark Carney kissed King Charles’s ring this week to mark the end of his visit to the United Kingdom, the latest stop in a 28-nation photo-op since taking office a year ago. Presumably the PM did not ask the King whether he intended to fulfill the wishes of 84 per cent of Canadians who support removing former prince Andrew from the line of monarchial succession. Carney then left London to begin a vacation in Europe.
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Carney accomplished nothing of significance while in the U.K. — he met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer to declare they were concerned about the war in the Middle East. A nothing result fits the pattern that has emerged after Carney’s travels.
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A report in The Hub by Graeme Gordon last week summarized Carney’s previous smiley handshake meetings during 26 foreign trips, equal to visiting a foreign nation every two weeks since being elected PM. University of Toronto economics professor Joseph Steinberg told Gordon that Carney’s global travels have produced few accomplishments. “Carney’s primary focus should be on renegotiating CUSMA,” the North American free trade agreement.
When Carney returns to Canada after his vacation, he would be wise to check out political developments in North America that have not been fully acknowledged or appreciated. In Canada, the major shift has been the emergence of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre with a refreshed policy agenda and the basis for an election platform that confronts the Carney world view head-on.
The clash of ideas was on full display over the past few days when Poilievre visited Detroit/Windsor and then Texas. In the twin auto cities, he laid out the Conservative approach to the auto industry. As Poilievre described it, he seeks a “tariff-free” auto trade plan with the United States and Mexico. One objective is a new pact to allow the maker of a car in Canada to import a car from the U.S. or Mexico duty free. Other policies would maintain 75 per cent North American content on vehicles made in Canada. “There are no other equivalent markets for Canadian-made automobiles,” said Poilievre in a realistic assessment of Canada’s auto future. Carney’s agreement to allow 49,000 made-in-China EVs to enter Canada is based on “a fantasy and dangerous illusion,” the Conservative leader said.
Whether the new plan will gain any traction with Mexico and the U.S. is certainly debatable. Also worth noting is that Poilievre’s definition of a “tariff-free” auto sector is inconsistent with his extensive praise of free-market economist Adam Smith in a speech earlier this month in London. To mark the 250th anniversary of Smith’s free-market classic, The Wealth of Nations, Poilievre said Smith’s principles were “Free trade, free markets, free nations — and that is the theme of this speech.”
In Texas yesterday, Poilievre shifted from autos to oil, promoting Canada as a source of stable and secure energy, another contrast with Carney’s plan to “reduce our reliance on the United States and build trading relationships with reliable partners.”
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While Poilievre unfortunately mangles a few of Smith’s principles, his auto trade plan, his support for liberal international trade in general, and his support for essential economic co-operation with the United States all amount to a direct put-down of Prime Minister Carney’s global campaign to break free of the hegemon of the old market-based world order.
Significantly, Poilievre’s put-down of Carney’s anti-market outlook appears to coincide with the views of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In a speech last month in Munich, Rubio took direct aim (without naming him) at Carney’s Davos declaration that the old world order is in shambles and needs to be replaced by an association of middle powers.
Rubio in effect called for a renewal of the international order that assumed all nations can be trusted as dedicated to peace and prosperity — even as they build military might. “To appease a climate cult,” said Rubio, “we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people.”
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Instead of abandoning the ruptured old world order, as Carney proposes, Rubio calls for renewal. “We do not need to abandon the system of international co-operation we authored, and we don’t need to dismantle the global institutions of the old order that together we built. But these must be reformed. These must be rebuilt.”
Whether Poilievre’s world view aligns perfectly with Rubio’s is unknown. “In a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish,” Rubio said.
From what we have seen in the past few weeks, however, Canada’s Conservative leader aligns with a view that, as time moves on, the values that lifted America, Canada and Europe — from Adam Smith’s free-market economics to the spread of individual freedoms — should remain in place, nationally and internationally.
None of this sits well with pro-Liberal commentators, who claim that Poilievre’s desire to maintain close economic ties with the United States is “out of step” with the views of Canadians who would rather boycott U.S. products than maintain existing trade ties.
As we move toward a post-Trump and post-Carney era, the old order that created the modern world could make a comeback under Poilievre and Rubio.
• Email: tcorcoran@postmedia.com
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