Pope Leo is giving lessons on the immorality of modern warfare. Mark Carney should pay attention.
Mark Carney, who revealed himself as a man of conscience on his way to the Prime Minister’s Office, now needs to push back against the militarists demanding never-ending increases in defence spending and start pushing the UN’s agenda for peace.
Like all politicians, Mark Carney is doing what he has to do to survive. The poetry of his Davos speech has met the pragmatism of the public arena. Whether ‘values-based realism’ will make him a great leader remains to be seen.
The prime minister is a highly accomplished man and has already established himself in world leadership ranks. He now needs to elevate the soft power of diplomacy over the hard power of militarism.
Pope Leo famously has no divisions to send to battle, rather the expression of a conscience to protect all of humanity from the ravages of war. Mark Carney, in deciding how much Canada should actually spend on preparing for war, should emulate Leo, not Donald Trump.
Underneath the welter of new alliances Mark Carney is forming to save Canada economically and recover some of our strength internationally, I sense that he’s holding back from boldly advancing UN principles and international law.
I dissent from the wild disproportion of what the world spends on arms and what it spends on development. I dissent from the anti-humanitarian policies of war for peace. I dissent from the perpetuation of poverty through the greed of the rich. I dissent from the despoliation of the planet by short-sighted industrialism. Most of all, I dissent from the fabric of lies spun by the proponents of nuclear weapons who would have us believe that these heinous instruments of mass murder make us safer.
Mark Carney’s four days at the UN showed his belief that Donald Trump’s aggressiveness can be fought off by strengthening Canada’s trade, energy, and security through diplomacy. When Carney returned home and went to Question Period, the opposition seemed uninterested in grilling him on what he had accomplished at the UN.
It calls for addressing the root causes of conflicts and accelerating commitments on human rights. Most importantly, it brings into sharp focus the need for recommitment to international co-operation based on respect for international law.
Severe cuts to the budgets of UN humanitarian agencies, including those dealing with refugees and children, have set off panic through the organization.
The new prime minister needs to come clean with the Canadian public. It is the existential threat of climate change, nuclear weapons, pandemics and forced migrations of peoples that also challenge Canada’s security. Mark Carney must think beyond NATO to be a credible leader.
Canada’s possible participation in the Americans’ Golden Dome would overturn decades of resistance to southern neighbour’s often extraordinary missile plans.
Mark Carney’s moment in leading world affairs has come. As a pragmatist, he knows how to beat the bully Trump. In facing outward, the 24th and now 25th Canadian prime minister will hold Canada together as a sovereign nation.
As the present front-runner in the election race, Mark Carney has a special responsibility to straightforwardly pledge support for a global recommitment to international cooperation based on respect for international law as the urgent security imperative for our time.
If Mark Carney survives these dehumanizing battles, he will lift up Canadians: high drama indeed.
