Matt Gurney
Matt Gurney is a Toronto-based journalist. He is co-editor of The Line (ReadTheLine.ca), an online magazine. He can be reached at matt@readtheline.ca.
Matt Gurney is a Toronto-based journalist. He is co-editor of The Line (ReadTheLine.ca), an online magazine. He can be reached at matt@readtheline.ca.
We cannot stop the Americans from doing what they are doing and what they will do next. But we can make damn sure that the entire world sees them doing it, including parts of the world where a great many Americans have interests of their own.
The man likely to be the next premier of Quebec has declined to make our problems worse, at least for now. For that, if nothing else, he has our thanks.
We already have a ton of expertise. Canadian-built water bomber aircraft are almost ideal for this kind of situation and are in urgent demand all over the world.
A country that needs multiple years to issue permits to retrofit an outbuilding is probably not one that is going to pull off a project that would cost tens of billions of dollars, take decades, and cross numerous jurisdictions, requiring significant land expropriation and considerable consultation with Indigenous Peoples.
Let’s tell the South Koreans that we want to place a large order for their mobile guns and that we want to partner with their industries, too. Let’s show up with a specific plan and a gigantic duffel bag of cash. And maybe a nice card.
Let’s do our future selves a favour and work through our list of defence spending priorities as soon as possible, and then make a national effort to get better at just doing things when they should be done, instead of putting everything off as long as possible until circumstances force us to try and get it all done at once.
Canada’s military procurement is also going to become part of our foreign policy. A careful balancing of the Europeans against the Americans—and potentially the South Koreans against the Americans as well—is going to be part of how Ottawa does business from now on.
Mark Carney should also—to the extent this proves possible—work in coordination with the federal Conservatives. Neither party will love the idea, but Pierre Poilievre has already said that his party and his caucus will campaign to keep Canada united.
Economic issues might come back to the fore. I know a great many Conservatives who remain deeply frustrated that they are polling so badly as a party, despite polling so well on issues that matter dearly to millions of voters. This might give them some hope.
So far, there’s been a lot more talk than action, and, for a guy who campaigned on rebuilding this country so it could confront existential threats to our sovereignty, more speed would be better. I suspect even the prime minister would agree.
It’s time for Canada to pick a jet—or a mix of jets—and get it done. Our pilots deserve it, and given the state of the world, the country may need it. Carney has a majority now. He can essentially do what he wants. I hope this is near the top of his list.
Legal experts have sounded the alarm over a provision in Bill C-16 and say if it were to pass into law as written, automatic stays of proceedings if trials took too long to complete would no longer be an option, or at least would only be an option of last resort.
Every time I hear a story of some other shockingly violent crime and see the federal government absolutely incapable of coming up with any kind of meaningful communications position or policy response, I do wonder if time is on the side of the Conservatives.
This is a classic example where the government is clearly pursuing a strategy—a reset of our relationship with India—while also trying not to provoke any political backlash among voters who will be angered by such a reset. Maybe the government just doesn’t know what its plan is or how to message it.
Canada should leverage its geographic advantage—far from Europe’s front lines—along with its close relationship with Ukraine and its willingness to invest heavily to develop advanced drone and anti-drone capabilities that can be shared with and sold to allies.
So as we continue to work on conventional rearmament, it’s worth keeping an eye on this. Because if there’s a way we can do this, we should.