AMERICAN DREAMER

Carney warns against U.S. ties after betting own fortune on Yank economy

For a man so heavily invested in the United States, Mark Carney certainly wants us to fear the U.S.A. and to see it as a threat. The prime minister’s video address released a week ago Sunday, contained several warnings about being too close to the Americans.

He even invoked the War of 1812 while pushing the idea that we need to fight a common enemy today.

“The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weakness – weaknesses that we must correct.” Carney said.

“The U.S. has changed and we must respond.”

Let’s examine Carney’s close ties to America, shall we?

Prior to becoming PM, Carney was chairman of the board of Brookfield Asset Management, and while there, he moved the firm’s head office to New York from Toronto. He was also a board member of Bloomberg Philanthropies, based in New York; and Stripe, the global payments firm based in San Francisco.

After he became PM and he placed his investment portfolio in a blind trust, we learned how deeply invested Carney was in the United States as compared to Canada.

Of the 567 companies listed in his portfolio, just three were Canadian, while 91% of Caney’s portfolio was invested in American companies. He had more investments in Irish, British and Dutch firms that he had in Canadian ones.

And Brookfield, the massive company he moved to N.Y.C. at the end of 2024, Carney had stock options worth $6.8 million.

So while Carney tells the rest of us to remember the war of 1812, he remembers to bet big on the American economy for his own personal wealth.

Meanwhile, the jobs of real people are on the line. People in the industries he highlighted, like auto, steel and lumber could see further layoffs.

Less than a year ago, Carney instructed his new cabinet via a mandate letter that securing a new trading relationship with the United States was his government’s No. 1 priority. During the election, he told Canadians that he was the one who knew Donald Trump and would be able to handle the American president and secure a deal.

Now, it feels like Carney is using this video to soften the blow that CUSMA may not be renewed.

Things will not go back to the way they were before Trump’s re-election. Even if the Americans changed presidents tomorrow, things would not be the same.

But what Carney is trying to sell Canadians about our pivot away from the United States is nothing but pure fantasy.

We can and must diversify our trade, but we’ve been talking about doing that for decades with little success.