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From swaggering to staggering – Canada’s decline into irrelevance

Published

2 years ago

7 minute read

From the MacDonald Laurier Institute

By Philip Cross

It’s remarkable how much our international reputation has faded over the past 10 years, both diplomatically and economically.

It is remarkable how much attitudes about Canada have shifted, both here and abroad, over the past 10 years. A decade ago, riding the wave of a booming economy, Canada was widely admired for a banking system that had got through the 2008-2009 global financial crisis without government bailouts. Today the country’s global stature is much diminished and Canadians are rapidly losing confidence in their economic prospects.

In the years leading up to 2016 Canadians grew accustomed to global accolades. In a 2003 cover story, The Economist touted the prospects for “cool Canada,” following up in 2006 that Canada’s relative economic performance made it a “superstar” as the “only country running both current-account and budget surpluses.” Steve Poloz, then chief economist at EDC, said in 2005 the stars were aligned for Canadian firms to achieve the “productivity miracle” already realized in the U.S. In 2012, the OECD secretariat forecast Canada’s economic growth would lead the G7 nations over the next 50 years. Our AAA credit rating, stable economy and resource riches prompted the IMF in 2012 to recommend central banks hold more currency reserves in Canadian dollars, leading to headlines about “loonie set to join global currency elite” as a safe haven in turbulent times.

A Maclean’s article reporting 2011 poll results proclaimed Canada was “on top of the world” and “Canadians have never felt so upbeat about the future.” A year later, Joe O’Connor could claim in this newspaper that “Canada’s got swagger.” This confidence was reinforced when Britain hired Mark Carney in 2012 as the first foreign-born governor of the Bank of England, calling him the “best central banker of his generation.” On the global stage, in 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama told Parliament: “the world needs more Canada.”

A stable banking system was not Canada’s only perceived financial advantage. Some analysts predicted Toronto would become a major trading centre for the North American cap-and-trade carbon market. Moody’s Analytics projected Toronto’s financial services industry would employ more people than London’s by 2017. Tiff Macklem, then dean of the Rotman School, wrote an op-ed in 2016 touting Toronto’s “potential to become the leading global fintech hub.”

That was then. Today Canada’s reality is much different than people were expecting before 2015. Its finance sector is known for being “an ATM and safe deposit box for money laundering,” according to Jonathan Manthorpe in his 2019 book,  Claws of the Panda. In 2018, The Economist noted that Canada “has long had a reputation as a place to snow-wash money.” Regulation is split between federal and provincial governments and there are almost no restrictions on lawyers involved in laundering.

Instead of buoyant economic growth, the OECD last year downgraded Canada’s prospects to 2060 to dead last out of 38 nations. In a 2019 feature, The Economist noted that the top Canadian firm on Fortune’s list of the world’s largest companies ranked 241st, concluding that our “economy and business culture will have to become more American.”

Nothing has damaged Canada’s economy and global stature more than the obstacles governments have deployed to hamper our energy industry. In 2011, the late Jim Prentice, then vice-chairman of CIBC, reviewed the slew of Canadian energy projects then underway, from hydro in Labrador to Alberta’s oil sands, and concluded “no one else is bringing on energy projects on the pace and scale of Canada.” Today, by contrast, British Columbia and Quebec are struggling to meet electricity demand, while the oil sands have slashed investment.

The harm from discouraging oil and gas development was fully revealed after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Canada was unable to answer Europe’s desperate need for oil and gas. When German Chancellor Scholz visited Canada to plead for more natural gas, our prime minister claimed there was “no business case” to support LNG exports to Europe. Meanwhile, since March 2022, American firms have signed now fewer than 57 supply agreements with Europe for 73 million metric tons of LNG annually, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal.

A recent Nanos poll found even fewer Canadians (just 13 per cent) thought our global reputation had improved than were satisfied with the state of our economy (23 per cent). The Wall Street Journal said last year that Canada’s paltry defence spending should disqualify us from G7 membership, while Spain is openly lobbying to take our place. We have become irrelevant to the geopolitics of our natural allies, whether the problem at hand is the growing rivalry between the U.S. on the one hand and Russia and China on the other or the EU’s fixation on rectifying its energy and defence deficits.

More broadly, Canada has failed in its traditional role of explaining the U.S. to the rest of the world. Though it’s strange to recall, immediately after Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the hope was Trudeau would be the “Trump Whisperer,” establishing Canada as an “indispensable nation,” to quote Maclean’s Scott Gilmore. Instead, we have reverted to our traditional sense of moral superiority over Americans and now parrot the global chorus condemning the direction of U.S. politics. We have a plan for dealing with Trump, the prime minister assures us. Good luck to us with that.

Philip Cross is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

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Mark Carney says Canada will give ‘military assistance’ to Ukraine at taxpayer expense

Published on September 9, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The prime minister’s office confirmed that Canada would commit to ‘direct and scalable military assistance’ in Ukraine when the war has calmed down.

The Canadian government under Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a promise for “military assistance” to Ukraine once a ceasefire is in place.

Carney made the comments after attending a recent virtual meeting for the “Coalition of the Willing” pro-Ukraine nations.

Late last week, Carney’s office confirmed that Canada would commit to “direct and scalable military assistance” in Ukraine when the war has calmed down.

At the “Coalition of the Willing” meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 allies of Ukraine promised to deploy their armed forces via land, sea, or air to the nation as a “reassurance force,” but not until the war with Russia is officially over.

Placing Canadian troops in Ukraine would come at a huge cost to Canadian taxpayers, who are already dealing with high inflation and high taxes.

The reality of the Ukraine war is grim. To date, it is estimated to have cost the lives of more than 1.5 million people.

Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor accused Western powers of sustaining a war built on illusion, not diplomacy.

From black-market weapons ending up with cartels to unchecked government corruption, Macgregor warned that U.S. aid is fueling chaos and not peace.

Critics of Canada’s support for Ukraine, such as from People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier, have said Canada should not be involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

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Poilievre vows to rebuild Canada’s military, replace ‘woke culture’ with ‘warrior culture’

Published on August 19, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

The Conservative Party leader has pledged to increase military spending and re-emphasize ‘bravery, honour, patriotism and strength.’

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to rebuild Canada’s military after years of “ideological extremism” under the Liberals.

In an August 16 open letter to serving Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members at CFB Wainwright, Poilievre made 22 commitments to restore Canada’s military while ending the “woke culture” promoted by the Liberal government.

“After years of Liberal neglect, underfunding, and ideological extremism, our military is hollowed out. The world is becoming more dangerous, and our enemies are watching,” Poilievre declared. “It’s time we send them a message: Canada is back.”

“Conservatives believe now is the time to make the largest rebuild of our military in a generation, beginning in the North and extending across our land,” he continued.

Poilievre’s plan included increased military spending, replenishing Canada’s weapons which were donated to Ukraine, and boosting support for military members and their families. It also outlined support systems for veterans.

He further promised to “replace the woke culture with a warrior culture.”

“No more DEl. No more weird political agendas,” Poilievre declared. “The military is a fighting force, not an instrument of social engineering. Bravery, honour, patriotism and strength are its pillars.”

“To serve is to sacrifice,” he continued. “But service should not mean neglect. I will fight for you to once again be respected, equipped, and empowered. We will put our country first, and that begins with giving our Armed Forces the tools and culture of victory.”

The Canadian military is currently suffering from recruitment shortages, which many experts have revealed is a result of embracing and pushing the LGBT ideology within the CAF.

In 2023, officials admitted that the nation’s military is shrinking to dangerously low numbers as Liberals continue to push the LGBT agenda on Canadian soldiers. In addition to low recruitment, the military is struggling to retain soldiers.

As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the military spent Canadians’ tax dollars on polls, guest speakers, presentations, workshops, and LGBT flags. The workshops covered topics including “the gendered nature of security,” while one talk discussed “integrating gender and diversity perspectives.”

In 2021, the defense department revealed that they have two separate committees and eight programs which worked to appoint homosexual advisors to “innovate” religious instruction and gender-neutral uniforms.

In June 2023, Canadian troops in Latvia were forced to purchase their own helmets and food when the Liberal government failed to provide proper supplies. Weeks later, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lectured the same troops on “climate change” and disinformation.

A Canadian Armed Force member previously told LifeSiteNews that between the COVID vaccine mandates and pushing the LGBT agenda, Canadian soldiers have lost confidence in the military.

He explained that ideological agendas are driving away new recruits, as the primary source of recruitment for the military is “Saskatchewan farm boys” who want to serve Canada – not radical left-wing ideologues.

“That farm boy looks at the army and with the blue hair and the face, piercings and ideologies and all that stuff,” he said. “And it doesn’t have the same pull because it doesn’t represent the farm boy’s values.”

“This is not the Canada that we signed up to defend. It’s an alien ideology that people don’t resonate with,” he continued. “These are not Canadian values of freedom and democracy. These are cancel culture values of censorship, of authoritarianism, of radical ideologies that are alien to our culture.”

In one such example of how this ideological mandate has impacted soldiers, a commanding officer of the 4th Canadian Division Support Group (CDSG) of the Greater Toronto Area Detachment threatened personnel who dared to throw out tampon dispensers which had been placed in men’s bathrooms as part of the military’s new “inclusion” policy.

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