Who Lost Canada?

Ottawa’s announcement that it is buying 12 new submarines from Germany, in what the government calls “the largest defense procurement in Canadian history,” is the latest signal of deteriorating relations with America. Defense contractors here in America used to supply some 75 percent of Canada’s arms and military equipment, the Times has noted, before a change in course by the Liberal prime minister, Mark Carney. Why the shift?How, too, did a Liberal like Mr. Carney wind up leading the dominion to America’s north? Canadian politics, to be sure, has a soporific element. The last time we checked on the electoral doings in Canada it was 2024, when a survey was suggesting a landslide victory for the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre in the next round of elections. This was credited in part to the unpopularity of the Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. There were certainly grounds for voter dissatisfaction, as our columnist Conrad Black reported, in part because Mr. Trudeau and his Liberals had been stifling Canada from achieving its full potential. Lord Black decried “the decline of Canada’s competitive status as an economic and geopolitical power” and its “descent down the ladder of the world’s nations in per capita income.” Lord Black blamed Mr. Trudeau’s “debacle of misgovernment.”Hence the optimism for Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives in the leadup to the elections that fell in April 2025. In the fall of 2024, ABC News reported, “polls showed the Conservatives with what seemed like an insurmountable 25-point lead.” Yet a funny thing happened on Mr. Poilievre’s way to the premiership. Shortly after January 20, 2025, prospects for Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives started to dim. Canadians, press reports say, started to develop a certain degree of disdain for their longtime ally and trading partner, America. “Many Canadians became angry,” ABC News reported, and “visits to the U.S. began falling and some boycotted American products.” Such a souring of a long and fruitful relationship could well appear downright implausible, considering the decades of close ties between the two countries. As it turns out, though, the new American administration began to pursue policies that peeved the purportedly easygoing Canadians. Feature, say, the punitive 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports to America. There was, too, a suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state of America. The duly chosen prime minister was mocked as “Governor Trudeau.” In March of 2025 a flummoxed Mr. Trudeau resigned his office. The Liberals opted for Mr. Carney as their new standard-bearer. When the election was held, voters expressed their ire with America by backing the Liberals, who won a narrow but decisive victory, with some 44 percent of the vote over 41 percent for the Conservatives. The victorious Mr. Carney has since spoken of a “rupture” in the world political order and has been pursuing, among other initiatives, closer trade ties with Communist China.Mr. Carney, too, announced earlier this year plans to “divert billions of dollars in military spending it long gave to U.S. defense companies,” per the Times. Monday’s announcement on submarines reflects that pivot away from America. It suggests the question: Who could be to blame for this reversal of political fortune, which is already yielding adverse outcomes for both nations? To ask, as the saying goes, is to answer.

Who Lost Canada?

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