Canada’s new declarations of independence disguise continued economic and cultural reliance on its threatening neighbor. From Mark Carney’s trade diplomacy to the literati’s self-congratulation, Canada can’t imagine a freedom that isn’t defined by the US.
Review of Elbows Up! Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance, edited by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (McClelland & Stewart, 2025).
It was all smiles when Vice President J. D. Vance hosted Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, for lunch at the Naval Observatory earlier this fall. The two men posed for photographs with their wives before sitting down to whipped goat cheese and beet salad, then grilled salmon. In a cutesy touch, there was “Miramisu” to follow, prepared by Vance’s daughter, Mirabel. Canadians could be forgiven for finding all the sugar hard to digest.
Carney had won the federal election in April by claiming that he was the man who would help Canadians keep their “Elbows Up” against the annexationist dreams of Donald Trump. The term describes a hockey player’s determination to defend themselves aggressively — Carney’s admirers liked to remind voters that he had once been a reserve goalie for Harvard University. The prospective prime minister told Canadians that while Vance’s boss might want “our land, our water, our resources, our country,” his government would make sure that such a disaster “will never ever happen.”
Yet Carney has so far responded with tense smiles rather than sharp elbows to Donald Trump’s provocations. His government has removed most of the reciprocal duties that Justin Trudeau imposed on American goods in response to Trump’s tariffs and repealed the digital services tax, against which Silicon Valley has long protested. His newly created minister of artificial intelligence hopes to follow…
Auteur: Michael Ledger-Lomas
