Last Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney offered to take America's place as a global leader.
I saw this on Reddit, which was full of comments of support from all over the world. It was the first time I read some news that made me feel good in a while, actually. But it also got me thinking about how we've gotten here and what we need to change in order to do better.
I know we're in an election period, but Carney was clearly speaking in his role as Prime Minister, not as leader of the Liberal Party. His speech came after the so-called Liberation Day in the states, when the President put tariffs on a whole slough of countries and territories (some of which have a population of zero). Carney's response was to effectively move past having the States as a viable trading partner, and offer something else. Namely, Canada as the adult in the room that is global trade.
Global trade has been pretty good for a lot of people. Our world would look drastically different if it hadn't developed. However, we have to remember the harms that unfettered global trade has done as well. Shipping is still one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses on the planet, and despite the self-imposed trade wars taking up all of the news cycle lately, there still is a climate crisis and we are still hurtling towards a future that looks dramatically worse than what we're dealing with now. All the talk about car manufacturing in Canada needs to have electrification in the forefront. Diversifying our economy needs to have future-proofing and decarbonization as a major part of it, or we're just going to continue down this road.
Global trade has also come with terrible harms to Indigenous populations all over the world. One of the first kinds of traded goods was people, lest we forget. Also Canadian trade and industry has been and continues to be done at the expense of the Indigenous people who have been here far longer than any settlers have. Energy corridors may sound good as a trade war measure, but we have to remember that the land these harmful industries will be on Native Land and any discussion has to involve them.
That brings me to energy. I know we still use oil, but we can't keep going that way. We still have to find a way to transition to better, more efficient and sustainable ways to power our world. I've said before that we can use the money that comes from oil to do this, but the goal has to be to move beyond oil and into a better future.
Carney has promised growth, he's promised building and a good future for Canada. I'm not here to endorse anyone or pick a side in the election, I'm just looking at polls. Odds are pretty good that he'll be the one to lead us into this future. If that ends up being how it shakes out, we need to stop doing things the old way, because the old ways only lead us to where we already are.
If we're going to lead in the future, we need to lead towards a better one.
