Canada’s new leader is bad for Canada — and the US

This past Monday evening, the Liberal Party of Canada — already a decade in power — secured a new government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, its freshly appointed leader.

In politics for less than a year, Carney was parachuted in to save the Liberals, who, as recently as December, were polling at just 16% under their highly unpopular former leader, Justin Trudeau. 

Carney’s ascent to the prime ministership is the worst of possible outcomes at the worst possible time — not just for Canada, in particular, but also for the United States. 

For Canada, this means another four years of the same Liberal government that led the nation into a lost economic decade marked by near-zero per capita economic growth, increased inflation, and swelling public service and spending, which doubled the national debt.

Excessive immigration under the Liberals exacerbated already existing crises in housing, health care, and affordability. Canada’s opioid epidemic was worsened by the party’s wrongheaded “safer supply” policies, experiments in decriminalization, and a lack of enforcement of drug laws. 

The Liberals may have a new leader in Carney, but his policies will shift little from his predecessor.

Canadians can expect more of the same DEI ideology over merit, an aggressive government euthanasia program (MAID), women’s sex-based rights continuing to be ignored, and a justice system that serves as a revolving door for dangerous repeat criminals.

Canada is doomed to stay woke for the foreseeable future. 

These are the same Liberals who continued to support UNRWA, despite learning of its involvement in Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.

The Liberals, whose foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, placed an arms embargo against Israel, and received a personal thank-you from Hamas for supporting a ceasefire in Gaza. Under the Liberals, hate crimes against Jews have increased 71% since 2023, synagogues and Jewish schools have been shot at, and Jews are being harassed in neighborhoods where they live under the guise of “protest.”

How bad is it?  Residents have requested “bubble zones” that will protect Jewish institutions. And Carney may be even worse. In his short campaign period of 37 days, he confirmed the continuation of UNRWA funding and was caught on video agreeing with a protester that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

A new Liberal government also means a new leader, even more focused on environmental and social governance than the last, despite Canada being responsible for a measly 1.45% of global emissions. 

Under the Trudeau Liberals, Canadians were burdened with a consumer carbon tax that raised the cost of living prices, both directly and indirectly.

Axing this tax was such a popular campaign issue for Conservative Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre that the Liberals cynically co-opted it and reduced it to zero. And not because they disagreed with this tax of their own making, but because it had become too divisive and unpopular for their party. 

Their new leader, Carney, is a former UN special envoy for Climate and Finance who later co-founded the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) to expedite the transition from fossil fuels to green energy. Carney has already admitted that personal assets stemming from his position as chair at Brookfield Asset Management may pose conflicts of interest.

But he still chose not to proactively disclose those assets before the election. Meanwhile, GFANZ’s influence on the American energy industry was recently the subject of a US House Judiciary Committee antitrust investigation, which accused it of being part of a climate cartel. 

Trump’s response to the liberals’ win has been intriguing. He was quick to congratulate Carney on his election success; in fact, he told the press that he’d rather deal with a liberal than a conservative.

It’s possible that Carney could end up with a far worse nickname than “Governor,” bestowed by Trump upon former Prime Minister Trudeau during his now-infamous annexation threats.

Despite being in power for nine years, Trudeau was unable to navigate Trump’s unique brand of psychological warfare, nor the flurry of Trump-induced memes, most notably Trump standing on the Matterhorn in Switzerland next to a Canadian flag.

Carney, far newer to politics, is likely to perform even more timidly and receive a worse nickname if he falls out of favor with the President. My guess: “Climate Carney.” 

For Americans, the arrival of Carney means your neighbor to the north elected a prime minister who, in response to Trump’s tariff threats, stoked one of the oldest, most foolish sentiments existing among Canadians — the arrogant belief that we are somehow morally superior to Americans.

“Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over,” Carney told Canadians.

He stoked fear, telling us, “America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country.”

Not only did this anti-Americanism and fearmongering work, but it’s hard to imagine it now being easily put back in the bottle. 

Carney was able to exploit fear of Trump to persuade Canadians to ignore the Liberals’ last 10 years of governance. When the threats from the south inevitably recede, Canadians may quickly come to regret their choice.

Terry Newman is a senior editor and columnist at the National Post. You can follow her on X at TLNewmanMTL.