The Politics of Pretence

by Larry McCloskey (July 2026)

 

 

Canada’s new world order is beginning to take shape (that is, if pending crisis and ruination can be described as shapely). Prime Minister Mark Carney recently made explicit his promise, that the centre or old world order of the American-Canadian alliance that has produced uninterrupted prosperity and security, “cannot hold.” And what better way to demonstrate new world order than to diss American military might, and order Swedish.

At the end of May, Carney announced Canada’s much anticipated plans to buy a fleet of early warning and control (AEW&C) planes from defence contractor Saab. And yes, what follows is a very Saab story.

Never mind that this purchase will compromise American military willingness to coordinate with Canada in any meaningful response to potential threat, rendering our singular response to threat mostly meaningless. Or that replacement parts, maintenance and training are more difficult once we vacate the North American orbit (though apparently the Swedish purchase does include an Allen key for each aircraft). Never mind that the reality of the Canadian military— that Canadians are loath to admit to—is that our actual protection from adversaries—notably China and Russia—is, has been, and will always be primarily due to our proximity to, and our relationship with, the United States. It is an old world inconvenient truth our new world betters choose to ignore. Acknowledgement of our military reality is not weakness; pretending our weakness is strength, is hubris.

Problem is, once the centre cannot hold, no one knows what happens to its flailing parts. Case in point: Alberta—that energy powerhouse with the 4^th largest oil and gas reserves in the world—will hold a referendum in the fall to determine if it wants to stay in Canada. Within the Canadian federation, Alberta annually pays $20 billion more to Ottawa than it gets back, which works out to approximately $4,167 per Albertan. If Alberta were to leave, taxpayers throughout the rest of Canada would have to pay an additional $1,007 per year. From 2007-08 until 2026-27, Alberta’s net contribution was $321 billion, nearly four times British Columbia at $87.8 billion, and more than five times Canada’s largest province Ontario, at $59.6 billion. (Fraser Institute).

Given that Canadian self-imposed economic decline of the past decade has resulted in the poorest American state becoming richer than the richest Canadian province, Alberta may be forgiven for likening Canadian membership to an assassin’s garrotte. Canadian nationalists scoff, not understanding that Canada cannot hold against this entrenched economic disparity.

This squabble is not quite what Carney promised, ran his campaign on, or even what he—with generous support from the legacy media—will admit is happening as it happens. Denial has always been a political strategy, the efficacy of which depends on the gullibility of its constituents. With a compliant, narrative-enhancing media, politicians—particularly on the left—are left to obfuscate and deny with impunity. Ernest Becker’s 1973 Denial of Death was ground-breaking precisely because it chronicled the ever-complicated and damaging ways humans deny the inevitability of death. Canada denies its self-imposed economic death, evidenced on a daily basis, with performance-art projections of confidence that denotes collective cluelessness.

For example, it recently and quietly became known that Canada is in a ‘technical’ recession—Carney’s and the media’s use of the word technical is to emphasize the benign nature of this recession. Still, it may be worth combining this benign technicality with the malignant fact that Canada lost one trillion in investment dollars since the Trudeau-Carney tag-team takeover. But, of course, it was not a take-over, we asked for it. We have elected four successive Liberal governments despite ever worsening economic and social consequences. Worse than worse, we do not hold politicians accountable for broken promises and blatant lies. As deniers of history, we are doomed to repeat the ever-emboldened lie.

It isn’t that Canadians are stupid. Rather, we have descended into preferred narrative motif over objective truth. The narrative of note is that we do not need, indeed are held back from thriving, due to the Americans. There is certainly a Goliath element to sharing a 8000 kilometer border with the country that has achieved economic, military and cultural hegemony unprecedented in human history. But politics of opposition to all things American—an impulse on steroids in response to President Trump—does not address Canadian interests. Indeed, our collective opposition defiance disorder (ODD, an actual diagnostic acronym) is so demonstrably against Canadian interests, it is truly odd.

The following quote from an anonymous psychiatrist best exemplifies: “All psychological pain can be derived from not being able to reconcile the world as it is from what you would have it be.” Utopian Liberal government new world order pronouncements fit the bill. And what could possibly account for such collective, aberrant, and self-injurious thinking?

Simple answer: ideology. When Pascal offered the existence of thinking as proof of the existence of God, he wasn’t contending, “I am told what to think, therefore I am.” The autonomous, self-evident truth of individual thinking was acknowledged as the vehicle for revelation, and that remains the same today. Ideology is borrowed thinking. Many to most Canadian political stances require a willingness among constituents to receive as fact what is blatantly fiction. Even when the scaffolding of supposed narrative fact is revealed as fiction, many Canadians remain accepting.

Perhaps most egregious fiction of recent years was Prime Minister Trudeau’s shameful opportunism—echoed by a critical-phobic media—regarding a whiff of possibility that Catholic residential school staff murdered and buried thousands of Indigenous babies. There was no proof, subsequent evidence comprehensively disproved the narrative (Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us and the Truth about Residential Schools, Tom Flanagan & C.P. Champion), and yet while Trudeau exercised unrestrained narrative lust, over 60 Christian churches were burned, and Canadian flags were flown at half mast for six months on all federal buildings, including the Peace Tower. Trudeau ordered flags to remain at half mast from May until November—a historical precedence—and were only raised again so they could be lowered for Indigenous Veteran’s Day.

Since 2021, on September 30th, the Canadian flag is lowered for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to remind Canadians of the troubled history of residential schools. Indigenous Canadian history is complex and difficult, and yet however unpleasant, we must accept and deal with truth. But it is ironic that Canadians do not insist on truth as logical prerequisite for reconciliation. Though Canadians would like to achieve reconciliation, narrative-spinners like Justin Trudeau can never allow their performance-art charade to be muddied by truth. Incredibly, Trudeau has never been called to account for perpetuating the biggest hoax in Canadian history.

One wonders—not just at Carney’s astonishingly provocative, anti-American actions—but at the breathtaking and deliberate timing. Last August, in the middle of negotiating Trump tariffs, Carney took the opportunity to suddenly announce Canada’s support for the state of Palestine, thereby undermining Israelis/American actions in the Middle-East. Israel has never been the reason why a two-state solution does not exist; Hamas, Iran, and its proxies fulfill that role. Cynically, Carney knew the Palestinian announcement was a useless gesture. It is completely dishonest to support a cause that will cost you nothing, will never happen, and is solely intended to score virtue-signalling points on a gullible progressive public. Gad Saad’s new book Suicidal Empathy, is creating a sensation for articulating the extent to which people choose  ideological conformity out of a misplaced, self-serving notion of empathy, even in the absence of logic and outcome.

Canada’s airplane purchase is not about Sweden, the quality of Swedish planes, or the inclusion of an Allen key. The planes may be very good, but the purchase is about capitalizing on growing anti-Americanism as means to entrench globalist new world order thinking. Canadians hear Trump’s vitriolic, bombastic delivery, and react with predictable opposition. Understandable to a point, but Canadian opposition is so extreme—perhaps in response to Trumps’ dogged pursuit of American interest— we seem incapable of asserting our own interest even when—as often happens—they align with American interests.

Prime Minister Carney’s petulance towards Americans and deference towards a borrowed globalist agenda may horrify Canadians once they catch up to the reality of its economic consequences. It is easy to forget that until recent years, American and Canadian economic productivity was close. From 1981 to 2001, labour productivity—a key driver of higher living standards— was 47% in the US, and 38% in Canada; but since 1981, American productivity has grown three times faster in the U.S. than in Canada. (Fraser Institute)

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. in 2007, when productivity comparisons were closer; today Canada’s economic performance is roughly 67-70% the aggregate size of the U.S. economy, with the Canadian dollar at roughly $0.71 USD. Bottom line U.S./Canada economic comparison is this: in a very few years we have gone from relative parity to an ever-widening gap as a result of terrible political leadership that refuses to reconcile the world as it is from what we would have it be. Meanwhile for all the rancorous, blood-lust of American politics, they have successfully directed their economic efforts towards the world as it is.

My argument is that Canada’s economic descent is not the fault of the the Americans. We don’t have to like Trump’s hyperbole and histrionics, but it is our reaction to the world as it is—the world that Trump is making—that is killing us. Worse, we smugly think ourselves superior for thinking Americans inferior which is formula for continued downward spiral.

Canada needs to be careful at this critical time. The Trump administration is consumed by the conflict with Iran, and is unhappy with many NATO allies, including Canada, for lack of support. Middle-East concerns—whether or not the Iran agreement holds—combined with general disagreement with Carney’s Liberals on most issues, is not fertile ground for CUSMA (Canada, United States, Mexico, Agreement) negotiations. All three countries would benefit from a renewed agreement which should be motivation for compromise and cooperation.

Canada needn’t concede to Trump’s negotiators, but equally so Carney’s rhetoric of opposition will undermine negotiations and hurt us. And there is no doubt that if Trump decides overall cooperation with Canada is a problem, he is capable of walking away from CUSMA. The United States can benefit from a new deal, but can easily withstand a post-CUSMA world. Canada needs CUSMA—an inconvenient, not to be acknowledged, truth—and denial will only hurts us.

Parenthetically, earlier in the week a hot mike incident between Trump and Carney at the G-7 meeting was reported. They were not scheduled to meet—a telling reflection of Canada’s standing with the current administration—but during a casual exchange, Carney was caught trying to justify allowing 49,000 Chinese EVs into the Canadian—and consequently North American—auto market, a deal that has drawn severe criticism from the auto industry. The current CUSMA can persist for another ten years but only if the three parties desire to do so, which Trump has indicated the United States may not.

I do not know what Canada should do, how we would be best advised to negotiate a new CUSMA deal. I only know this: in adopting an oppositional stance, Carney has unnecessarily placed Canada into a weak bargaining position, ignoring that strength is the foundational prerequisite to successful negotiation. If the Canadian economy descends further—with young people disproportionately bearing the burden—blaming Trump will become less satisfying even as thoughts of Trudeau and Carney fade into a bewildering, shameful past.