From establishing a new $50-billion investment fund co-managed by Brookfield Asset Management and the Canada Pension Plan fund, to permitting foreign investment in Canadians’ largest airports, and from a new 100-year deal with Ukraine, to signing up for a European defence of the Northern Seas, this was yet another week of surprises from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s autocracy. Then there are the major news items that Canadians were informed about through foreign media: the new “associate membership” arranged by Carney and the European Union (EU), and the increased military cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military and the Canadian Forces.
The latest flurry of pronouncements from Carney and the leaked news have even some stalwart Liberals such as the former Chrétien cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy concerned, exclaiming in frustration, “He is moving ahead to talk to the Europeans and we are left out in the cold. Parliament has become like chopped liver.” Indeed, it is becoming increasingly evident that Carney fancies himself empowered and entitled to impress his designs on the country and its citizenry, with no regard for the country’s democratically elected representatives and Parliament, and no regard for transparency and honesty with Canadians.
First, here is a working definition of an autocracy: a governing force where absolute power is held by a single person who makes all decisions without checks or balances, who is above the law and beyond reproach, and where citizens have little to no role in lawmaking or national policy, where dissent is repressed – silenced through censorship, legal force, and state propaganda.
Canadians (including Liberal MPs) are left in the dark
Canadians are left in the dark on what might happen next, as Carney is operating without the checks and balances the country’s democratic system used to employ. When pronouncements are made, Liberal cabinet ministers run from the microphones declining to comment, Canadian subsidized media regurgitate government talking points, instantly manufactured opinion polls are headlined, and any critical voices of the prime minister’s activities are dismissed as being unpatriotic MAGA Maples, or worse, treasonous. Consider these significant news items and how there has been no public discussion of the ramifications for Canadians.
- On Sept. 10, Carney pronounced that Canada and Ukraine have signed a declaration establishing a 100-year partnership. At a signing ceremony in Calgary with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Carney gave Ukraine a $350-million aid package for air-defence interceptors, an unspecified amount of money for the Ukraine Energy Security Fund, and more than $430 million in loan guarantees for gas purchases. The PM also revealed that Ukrainian drone manufacturers will be collaborating with Canadian firms to advance drone technology.
- What was not reported in Canada is that Canadian taxpayers are guaranteeing Ukraine pensioners. From Ukraine news sources earlier this week, Ukraine’s Finance Ministry is to receive $841 million from the World Bank under a guarantee from the Government of Canada, with the funds earmarked to cover pension payments in the state budget. There has been no comment about this guaranteed money from the Carney government, hence no information has been shared with Canadians.
- From this week’s Global Investment Summit, it was heralded that Brookfield Asset Management and Canadian Pension Plan Investments have established a $50-billion Maple Fund to invest in federal government-selected major projects infrastructure and key industries over the next five years. This Brookfield initiative using Canadians’ pension funds to derisk investments for their shareholders was first pitched to the Trudeau government by then-Chairman of Brookfield Mark Carney in 2024 – a fact that has been left out of news reports on Canada’s new investment vehicle.
- Also pronounced by the prime minister in a keynote speech at the Global Investment Summit is the initiative to allow foreign private investment in Canada’s four largest airports – in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. No details have been shared by the government to explain Carney’s claim that this foreign investment “will unlock their true value by bringing in new capital and expertise to their operations and their growth.” It is reported that an urgent call was arranged the night before the prime minister’s speech to inform the Liberal caucus of the pronouncement. In media coverage of this initiative, it was surprising to note that the airport authorities were not informed of the details.
- As reported in European news sources, on Wednesday night after meeting with U.K. PM Andy Burnham, Carney formally announced Canada’s application to enter the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a European multinational military partnership focused on the defence of the Northern Seas. The JEF is comprised of the U.K., Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. No details have been made public on how Canada will contribute to the defence initiatives.
A lack of accountability and transparency
There is no better illustration of the arrogance and outright deceptiveness of Carney than from two major news stories that broke in foreign news this week: Carney’s campaign to have Canada become an associate member of the EU, and the advance of the joint Canada-China military partnership. These two foreign policy initiatives will have profound ramifications for Canadians and, remarkably, they have been advanced by Carney with the Canadian Parliament shuttered and no dialogue initiated with Canadians.
First, Carney was all smiles in media coverage from Strasbourg, France, as he basked in the applause of the European parliamentarians on Wednesday and Thursday, after having denied his intentions to Canadians on Monday and Tuesday. It was as if there was giddy relief in having the consummation of the closed-door affair between he and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen finally made public to the world. Von der Leyen said, “Dear Mark, I said we must urgently re-imagine our partnerships. So I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union.” In his address to the EU Parliament, Carney responded, “Canada welcomes this ambition… An alliance for the future is an unique, positive approach that we will define together…”
Canadians were left to gaze in wonderment at the melodrama unfolding, only first hearing of the Canada-EU affair from an American news source. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Canada and the EU had struck a deal: “Mark Carney’s Audacious Bid to Make Canada an ‘Associate Member’ of the EU.” This was followed by the prime minister’s adamant denials: “Look, we’re not looking to become a member of the European Union. What we are looking and will begin discussions for is a ‘unique alliance’…” While he was denying everything to Canadians, he was telling New York-based BNN Bloomberg that his trip to Europe is “the start of a high-ambition process.” Then news leaked out that Carney had been pushing the “associate member” idea for months in private conversations with European leaders; senior officials confirmed it was Canada that made the overtures and the EU Ambassador to Canada crowed that Carney’s idea is “something unique.” In the end, Carney stood in a foreign Parliament to pronounce Canada’s foreign affairs objectives.
As deceptive as Carney’s courtship of Europe seems, the second news story that was reported in foreign media this week is much more problematic for the country, its public security and ultimately its sovereignty. Canadians learned from the South China Morning Post that formal military dialogue between Canada and China has been initiated. The CCP state-run paper headlined: “China and Canada resume military talks after eight years” and is quoted as characterizing the meetings which took place in early September as having “discussed international and regional issues and expressed a willingness to strengthen “practical exchanges and cooperation” between their militaries.” Canadian National Defence spokespeople were forced to comment to media inquiries with a statement that the renewed meetings do not signify a deeper defence cooperation, and that the government’s “guardrails” with Beijing remain in place. These bromides echo the prime minister’s own assurances to Canadians in December 2025 that “There are areas, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, defence, where clearly the security threats are such that we would not have a deep relationship with China in those areas.”
As this revelation was reverberating through the news cycle, Blacklock’s Reporter reported, “Anita Anand approved Canadian Armed Forces training for China’s military in 2023. Internal records show officials tried to conceal it.” Kept from Canadians was the fact that in June and July 2023 Canadian Forces personnel participated in CCP military war games in Mongolia. Conservative defence critic and MP James Bezan is calling for a parliamentary review of the activities. Investigative news reporter – an expert on Canada-Sino relations – Sam Cooper observed, “Canadians have no warning, and no clarity, on what this new dialogue between Canada’s and Beijing’s militaries will entail, and what guardrails, if any, will be in place.” Still, the secretiveness of the Carney Liberals in this case follows a pattern they have followed with all matters relating to Canada’s new “strategic partnership” with China, whether it be the confidential national security, policing and intelligence cooperation, the joint media work, or new finance agreements.
Carney’s endless pronouncements and his activities with the EU and China are having real consequences for Canadians. U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance recently claimed that Canada’s relationship with China was a core reason the countries’ trade talks failed. Others like American historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson has described in a number of media interviews how Carney is purposely agitating Americans, “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney now believes he is more than just the Western foil to Donald Trump and his MAGA movement—he is the global one.” Accordingly, Carney’s latest speech in Strasbourg is being received in Washington as yet another jab at the American administration. This may be all according to plan in Carney’s autocracy, but the offshoot of this is that Canadians, including their elected representatives, are being relegated to simple bystanders of one man’s designs.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
