MONTREAL — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney received a standing ovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, when he said he was speaking for the world’s “middle powers” threatened by the “great powers.” Even though he wasn’t explicit, everyone knew he was talking about the U.S. capitalist rulers.
“Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table we’re on the menu,” Carney said.
The deepening crisis of capitalist production and trade is causing sharpening conflicts among rival national ruling classes, an escalation in arms spending, major wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the drive to more wars.
The U.S. rulers are trying to bolster their weakening world domination by using their unmatched military and economic power to advance their own interests.
Canada’s capitalist rulers are highly vulnerable to this assault. Seventy-six percent of Canadian exports go to the U.S., far more than from any other country. In addition, the Canadian and U.S. economies are highly integrated.
Since taking office, the Donald Trump administration has hit Canada with a slew of tariffs, including 50% on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and 35% on most goods traded outside the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. While at least half of Canadian exports are sent to the U.S. tariff free under this treaty, it is up for renegotiation this year. Washington has made clear it intends to impose terms much more favorable to U.S. bosses.
Carney says the only way forward for the Canadian capitalists is to “diversify our trade partnerships.” With this in mind he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month and announced a “new strategic partnership” with China.
Carney’s plan an illusion
The idea that this will lessen the Canadian capitalists’ dependence on U.S. trade is an illusion. Currently, Canada’s exports to China are less than 4% of its total.
Ottawa has had sharp trade conflicts with Beijing for years. It has imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. Following the meeting, Ottawa agreed to reduce this tariff to 6.1%, while Beijing dropped duties on some Canadian agricultural imports.
When Carney announced his “strategic partnership” with Beijing, Trump revoked the invitation for Ottawa to join his so-called Board of Peace and threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canada’s goods and services.
In face of Trump’s threats Carney quickly reversed course, assuring Washington he has no intention of starting comprehensive trade negotiations with China.
Moreover, Canada’s rulers are deeply integrated into Washington’s military operations, including in Asia. Canadian air force planes at U.S. bases in Japan patrol skies around North Korea as part of Washington’s enforcement of sanctions against that country.
Canada’s capitalist rulers have been trying to lessen their economic dependence on the U.S. for decades, without success. With today’s sharply accelerating world capitalist rivalries, it’s even harder.
Carney’s call for an alliance of the “middle powers” against Washington — to compensate for the shattering of the “rules-based international order” — is utopian. All the capitalist powers are in fact driven to defend their own national interests against each other.
The facade of a “rules-based world order” is being torn apart by the consequences of today’s deepening world economic crisis.
Ottawa aims to target workers
“The only real option Canada’s capitalist rulers have is to try to resolve their crisis on the backs of working people,” Joe Young, Communist League candidate in next October’s Quebec provincial election, told the Militant. “And to prepare for war.”
“They’ve been waging a major offensive against working people and democratic freedoms ever since they deployed 3,000 heavily armed police against protesting truckers in Ottawa in 2022,” he said.
Ottawa’s attack on the right to strike is at the center of its offensive. In the past year and a half the federal government has tried to block every strike under its jurisdiction — by rail workers, WestJet pilots, port and postal workers, and Air Canada flight attendants.
Two unions successfully defied government back-to-work orders, showing that it is possible to defeat such attacks with broad union support. Some 55,000 striking education support workers disobeyed the Ontario government in 2022 and 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants stood up to Ottawa’s dictates last August.
Since 2021 around 1.5 million workers have gone on strike to fight for better wages and working conditions.
However, most union officials support the Canadian government in its trade conflicts with Washington and the rulers’ chauvinist anti-American diatribes. They serve only to divide workers in the U.S. and Canada, who are one another’s most important potential ally.
“The working class in Canada has no interest in fighting for the victory of Canada’s ruling families in their conflicts with the ruling rich in the U.S. and elsewhere,” Young said.
“Instead, working people must break with the parties and governments of the ruling rich, join struggles to defend our rights and our unions and build a working-class party,” he added. “A party whose goal is to organize millions of working people to take political power into our own hands and join the fight for a socialist world. That’s the kind of party the Communist League is building.”