A new road for Canada

The Trump–Carney meeting is now history. It was a necessary ritual: another Oval Office performance designed to mollify the emperor of ego with a dose of flattery and symbolic shadowboxing. The Prime Minister dutifully took one for the home team—listening to a torrent of presidential drivel, while skillfully avoiding any premature commitments beyond agreeing to disagree and to keep talking. A standard diplomatic minuet.

Now, Canadians can turn their attention to what really matters: what Prime Minister Carney actually means by setting a new path forward. Presumably, that includes reducing our dependency on the United States and staking out a more independent direction in our economy, security, foreign policy, and national identity.

There are early hints. Talk of legislation to dismantle internal trade barriers. A national energy corridor. Tax cuts. Fast-tracked infrastructure spending. The cancellation of the carbon tax. Heady stuff—especially for a minority government. How these ambitions are prioritized remains to be seen. We’ll get a clearer picture with the naming of the new cabinet and when Parliament returns on May 26 with a throne speech.

What troubles me, however, is the absence of serious prime ministerial comment on the broader context we now inhabit—a world that is more precarious, fractured, and unpredictable than at any point in recent memory.

A few weeks ago, Allan Rock and I wrote an op-ed in The Toronto Star that began this way:

“Whoever we elect will govern an anxious country in a disordered world. Domestic challenges of affordability and a sluggish economy have been compounded by the reckless and erratic regime in the United States. Long-held assumptions about continental free trade and our North American security partnership have been upended. Meanwhile, the international order we have long taken for granted is under threat as never before. Time-tested alliances have been shaken to their core. Collective responses to climate change have been weakened. Global institutions are scrambling to survive, stunned by unprecedented attacks from traditional supporters.”

That piece resonated. I’ve heard from many Canadians who share these same concerns. As I’ve travelled the country for book events, I’ve sensed a deep, often unspoken desire to engage more seriously with the big questions—about Canada’s place in the world, our national resilience, and the future we want to shape together.

That’s why, over the next few weeks, I’ll use this space to explore ideas, offer recommendations, and share navigational advice for a new road ahead. Some will be drawn from my recent book. Others from thoughtful Canadians I’ve listened to, read, and learned from. I hope you’ll share your perspectives too.

To get us started, I’ve attached a piece published yesterday in The Toronto Star about the India–Pakistan conflict. It gave me a chance to raise the spectre of the nuclear risks that still loom over us—risks that too many in government and the public sphere have grown dangerously comfortable ignoring.

In it, I argue that Canada must take a more active role in restoring global efforts to control weapons of mass destruction. This is exactly the kind of leadership we should offer—rebuilding institutions, supporting peace, and defending a rules-based international order.

Here’s the link to that commentary:

I am a former Minister of Foreign Affairs. This is what’s at stake in the India-Pakistan conflict – The Toronto Star

More to come.