The new Canada is much like the old one

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As I see it

As the neoliberal world order recedes, Mark Carney, in seeking closer European ties, faces challenges similar to those of the late Pierre Trudeau during the Cold War

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Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, commenting on China and international affairs.

I came of age in Canada during the Pierre Trudeau years – the Trudeau whom Canadians actually respect – as a high school student from Hong Kong. Back then, Canadian politics meant deliberate independence from the United States.

Some Canadians today, especially younger ones, seem amazed that Prime Minister Mark Carney, a Liberal like Trudeau, is charting foreign, defence and economic policies more independent of the US while moving closer to Europe. That is because they grew up in a US-led global economic order in which, in a backlash against the political and cultural dominance of the elder Trudeau and his old-style Liberals, Conservative leaders and prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper deferred to the US in all those key areas.

Pierre Poilievre, the current Conservative Party leader, who was at times dubbed “Canada’s Trump”, might have beaten Carney in the last election had US President Donald Trump not antagonised Canadians by threatening to make their country the 51st US state. For me, it is all deja vu – Carney as Pierre Trudeau part deux.

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