J.L. Granatstein: Carney’s biggest task? Standing up for Canada’s four key national interests

Commentary

Donald Trump and Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House, May 6, 2025, in Washington. Evan Vucci/AP Photo.

In his recent article in The Hub, David Polansky asked a very important question: how does Mark Carney’s government understand Canada’s core national and security interests? And, Polansky wrote, articulating national interests should be a top priority of his new government. He’s right, but simply articulating our interests is not enough. The government must take steps to put force behind its words. In fact, one can argue that this is the most important test for Prime Minister Carney and his newly appointed cabinet.

National interests are not difficult to detail for most nations, and Canada’s, in fact, are very clear:

  1. Canada must protect its territory, the security of its people, and its unity.
  2. It must strive to protect and enhance its independence.
  3. It must promote the economic growth of the nation to support the prosperity and welfare of its people.
  4. It must work with like-minded states, in and outside international forums, for the protection and enhancement of democracy and freedom.

This statement of Canada’s national interests is deliberately blunt, omits all the subtleties, and ultimate goals and instruments. The first, second, and third of these interests are unquestionably Canada’s domestic goals, and they threaten no other nation or people. They state simply and clearly what any nation must do in its own interests.

Security and unity

The first national interest is that Canada must keep its territory secure and protect its people, the basic task of every government. This means that the Canadian government must have the means to know if there are threats to its polity and the means to deal with them. We have come to realize in the last few years that both Russia and China have designs on the resources of the Arctic, and that we have almost nothing by way of surveillance assets or military force to view or dissuade any such intentions.

Worse still, since Donald Trump resumed the presidency of the United States, Canadians have been startled to learn that our American friends may also have designs of their own, not just on the Arctic and its resources, but to make Canada their 51st state. For too long, Canada has stinted building up its defences in the belief that the Americans—in their own national interest—would always defend us. That might no longer be the case, and this means that Canada must move as a priority to strengthen the Canadian Armed Forces so that they can be present on our northern territory and attend to the security of our people.

The question of unity is more difficult, given the nation’s history of linguistic and regional factionalism. All that needs to be said is that it is a mistake to act against the will of any large region of the country. Calls for independence for Quebec have been active for the last six decades; calls for secession in the West are becoming stronger. Managing this carefully and properly is absolutely critical for any government, the ultimate litmus test for any domestic policy. Our recent governments have not done well in this task. Carney’s simply must do better.

Independence

The second national interest was not directed at the United States in any military sense in the last century. The United States was then a mostly benign threat, its magnetic pull, the power of its corporations, culture, and institutions always a challenge to be dealt with. Now that has changed, and from being a benign threat, Canadians are beginning to view the Trump administration as a malign challenge to our sovereignty and national existence.

We cannot resist the power of the United States with military force, but we must at least demonstrate that we not only wish to survive as a nation, but our governments and our people are prepared to take every action possible to ensure that Washington understands this. And we must credibly contribute enough to North American defence that Washington cannot claim that American security requires that the U.S. assume total control.

Economic growth

The third national interest, enhancing the prosperity and welfare of Canadians, obliges Canada to trade with the United States. With some three-quarters of our trade with the Americans, we have no choice. Efforts have been made in the past to diversify—John Diefenbaker tried to increase trade with Britain by 15 percent and failed; so too did the diversification efforts of Pierre Trudeau’s Third Option in the early 1970s. Now the government is hoping to resist the Trump tariffs by finding new markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

We can hope these succeed, but the reality is that continental trade links bind us hand and foot to the United States. This means Ottawa must negotiate carefully, find allies in the U.S. state houses and Congress, and make a positive case to the American public. This must be a top priority of the Carney government.

Strength on the world stage

The fourth national interest reflects our nation’s history. We fought to defend freedom in the two World Wars, in Korea, in peacekeeping missions, by supporting Ukraine in its resistance to Russian invasion, and by our membership in NATO and our present participation in a leading role in the defence of the Baltic states. We have benefited from these efforts, and we have helped to spread democracy. This was in our national interest.

Today, with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran threatening their neighbours, the challenge to democracy and freedom is once again real. Regrettably, Canada has not played the role we ought to have. We have been a moral superpower, preaching our virtues to the world, but we have not put our money where it counts most. Our foreign aid is miserly, our military efforts an embarrassment. Canada’s new government states it will meet NATO’s 2 percent of GDP threshold by 2030, fully five years hence. This is frankly a joke. The military is understrength, the defence procurement system is a shambles, and our present equipment is largely obsolete.

If we mean to be a genuine supporter of freedom and democracy today, we need to do much, much better and soon. Being stronger might even help us find allies against Trumpist machinations.

Our national interests are simple and clear—even if they’re not easy. The Carney government knows what they are, and it must act quickly to meet the challenges we face. Articulate our national interests and move quickly to implement the policies—that must be the government’s only priorities.

J.L. Granatstein

J.L. Granatstein is the former director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and the author of Canada’s Army: Waging War and…

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