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Mark Carney, Canada's cosmopolitan man of steel, has given liberals a new playbook

Mark Carney, Canada's cosmopolitan man of steel, has given liberals a new playbook

Irish Times03-05-2025
We all knew
Donald Trump
can win elections, we just didn't know he'd be winning them outside the USA. Last Monday,
Trump won the Canadian election for Mark Carney
. There is no other way of interpreting the resurrection of the Liberal Party and the reincarnation of the uber-technocrat, Jesuit-educated Carney. In January, Carney was an out-of-work, itinerant central banker for hire, intellectually and temperamentally very much out of step in the new Maga world of ethno-nationalist populists. Today, he is the liberal world's man of steel who will square up to Trump, the very man who enabled his election win.
Carney turned the Canadian election into a referendum on Trump.
Canadians responded enthusiastically. Before Trump began dismissing Canada as an American state in waiting, the Liberal Party's support plummeted to a low of 16 per cent. This week it won 43 per cent of the vote. Trump has managed to create something the world has never seen: virulent Canadian nationalism.
Ironically for a committed cosmopolitan - he got an Irish passport years ago but has recently relinquished his Irish and British citizenship - a walking, talking Davos-man, Carney wrapped himself in the Maple Leaf and rode the nationalist wave. Bigging up his ice hockey credentials – Canada's real game – he deployed resolute rhetoric against the US to sell ordinary Canadians a firm but fair vision of themselves and their country. And they bought it.
Liberals all over the world are taking Carney's victory as evidence that
the juggernaut of ethno-nationalism can be beaten by facts, reason and an appeal to the better side of the electorate's nature
. Canadian nationalism is the acceptable face of nationalism in the liberal world because it is ... well, Canadian and decent. It presents itself as a middle-of-the-road, rule-of-law, Molson-lite nationalism. Defined not by what it is, but what it is against, this new Centrist Dad jingoism knows who the enemy is: Donald Trump.
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Canadians have given liberals a new playbook. Stand up to Trump and your people stand behind you. All around the world, conservatives are realising that Trump and proximity to Trumpism is a massive liability. This fact alone changes the global background noise.
The new Canadian Confederation was proof that the antagonism between the 1 million Canadians of French origin and the two and a quarter million Canadians of British origin could dwindle as they found common ground
So it turns out those nice Canadians are harder than most imagined. But now that the campaign is over, how does Carney, a brilliant economic mind, negotiate from here? He must find a way to deal with America, not just because the US and Canada are neighbours, united by history and geography, but because they are, for all intents and purposes, two nations with one economy. Around
76 per cent of exports
(representing around
one-fifth of Canadian GDP
) flow southward – making Canada particularly vulnerable to
US tariff policies
.
According to ScotiaBank, Canada imports roughly 34 per cent of its inputs (ie intermediate goods) from the US, and exports roughly 75 per cent of total goods it produces to the US. Energy is
Canada's single largest export to the US by value
, with crude oil and natural gas making up roughly one-third of Canada's total exports flowing south. Around one in six jobs in Canada are linked to exports, with some estimates suggesting incomes are 15 to 40 per cent higher thanks to freer trade.
Mark Carney needs a deal. The one thing in his favour is the growing realisation that,
when faced with stern opposition, Trump always caves in
. Carney just has to hang tight, fly the flag, follow the puck and wait for the phone call.
Whatever happens, it is clear that Carney's ascension to power within the Liberal Party represents not merely a change in leadership but a recalibration of Canada's economic and political identity. That identity was officially created at midnight on July 1st, 1867, when church bells rang out from Nova Scotia to Ontario, signalling that nearly four million people would wake up as citizens of the new Dominion of Canada. The official population of 3.8 million was only 10 per cent of the bustling nation to the south.
At that stage, many Canadians doubted whether their garrison country would survive, wondering just how long Canada could remain without the Americans, driven by their 'manifest destiny', ruling the entire continent. After all, the Americans had just slaughtered each other in the civil war, so Canadians were under no illusions about what the recently victorious Union army could do if it turned around and switched its attentions from the warm south to the freezing north.
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A win 'for democrats all around the world'. Canada's Mark Carney prepares to take on Trump
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But the new Canadian Confederation was proof that the antagonism between the one million Canadians of French origin and the two and a quarter million Canadians of British origin could dwindle as they found common ground. The rest – the indigenous peoples, the original inhabitants – didn't get a look in. The hope was that the differences, be they regional, racial or religious, could be gradually ameliorated by prosperity.
Can 'technocratic daddy' Mark Carney solve Canada's deep-rooted problems?
Listen |
40:48
Apart from the linguistic and cultural clash between French and English speakers, the major fault line in the new Canadian Confederation was sectarian. In the first Canadian census, 8 per cent of the population were neither French nor British. Of this group, 200,000 were German and the census turned up only 125 Jews, 11 Hindus and three Chinese.
The Irish were the largest group with the 'British' cohort, and we brought to Canada our sectarian 'green and orange' hatred that would play out in regular riots from Montreal to Toronto and Halifax. Ulster Protestant emigrants joined forces with Scottish farmers to form an Orange phalanx against the surge of Irish Catholic migration from the 1830s onwards. Today there are more Orange Lodges in Canada than anywhere else in the world outside Northern Ireland. (In fact, I witnessed my first and last Orange 12th of July march in Toronto back in 1986!)
More than 600,000 Irish emigrants arrived in Canada in the 20-year period between 1830 and 1851, making the Irish the second-largest ethnic group after the Quebecois. We kept coming to the new Confederation and, by 1931, more than a quarter of all Canadians were Irish-Canadians, one third Catholic and two-thirds Protestant. Today, there is scarcely a family in Antrim that doesn't have people in Canada, particularly Ontario.
Maybe a reason that I am interested in the country is that, but for last-minute cold feet, I would have been a French-speaking Canadian. In the late 1950s, my just-married parents got Canadian visas. My mother had secured a teaching job in Montreal, but a week before they were due to sail from Cobh they got the heebie-jeebies and stayed put. Between 1830 and 1970, 1.3 million Irish people moved to Canada. As a result, Irish-Canadians are about 14 per cent of the Canadian population today, Mark Carney included.
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The Canadian election: Trump effect a major factor
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Today's Canada is no longer divided between French and English speakers. It is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Many Canadians, including lots of the 41 per cent who still voted Conservative last week, believe immigration must be reduced, citing runaway house prices as evidence that the country can't cope. Similar arguments could be plausibly made here.
Canada is in essence two economies and cultures: the resource-based 'cowboy' commodity economy in the culture of western Canada and the service, 'social democrat' society of eastern Canada. Imagine a fusion of Texas and Belgium and you get the picture.
This is the country Mark Carney must unite. And nothing unites better than a common enemy. For Canadians, that man is Donald Trump, who this week proved he can win elections anywhere in the world.
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Heartache for Bayesian yacht victim Mike Lynch's family – estate faces bankruptcy after court demands it hand over £700M
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The Irish Sun

timean hour ago

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Heartache for Bayesian yacht victim Mike Lynch's family – estate faces bankruptcy after court demands it hand over £700M

IT was a tragedy that claimed the lives of a ­billionaire father and his daughter, drowned in a storm at sea. British tech entrepreneur Advertisement 6 Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah drowned at sea while out on his £38million yacht Bayesian Credit: PA 6 Mike's wife Angela Bacares was pulled to safety by a crew member 6 The Bayesian disaster claimed the lives of seven people last August Credit: PA As the boat sank rapidly, his wife Now, as the one-year anniversary approaches next month, 58-year-old businesswoman There is the The case was brought six years ago by HP after they acquired his company Autonomy in 2011. Advertisement read more on mike lynch The firm claimed Lynch and the former chief financial officer had fraudulently inflated its value. While Lynch was facing court action in America, HP was already chasing him through the civil courts in Britain — leading to this week's damages ruling. The High Court ruled that HP had paid a lot more than it would have done 'had Autonomy's true financial ­position been correctly presented' during the sale. If his estate — which goes to Angela and her remaining daughter Esme, 22 — ends up having to pay, it will almost certainly be bankrupted, ­leaving no inheritance for the family. Advertisement Most read in The Sun It is believed Lynch shielded his wife's ­personal fortune from the messy court cases. She owned millions of pounds worth of shares held in her name in other family firms. I found doomed Bayesian I saw still haunts me And she made more than £15million from the sale of her shares when Autonomy was taken over. One pal told us: 'Mike wasn't ­perfect but he wasn't a ­criminal in any way, shape or form. Advertisement He had asked various Cabinet ministers and Prime Ministers, including and Boris Johnson, to help him. 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Over 220 MPs call for Britain to recognise Palestine as Starmer says this will be 'part of wider plan'
Over 220 MPs call for Britain to recognise Palestine as Starmer says this will be 'part of wider plan'

The Journal

timean hour ago

  • The Journal

Over 220 MPs call for Britain to recognise Palestine as Starmer says this will be 'part of wider plan'

SOME 221 MPS from across different political parties have joined forces to call on the UK Government to recognise a Palestinian state. The MPs have urged the UK Government to take the step ahead of a United Nations conference in New York next week. This follows France's announcement yesterday evening it will formally recognise Palestine at a UN summit in September. France is the biggest and most powerful European country to recognise Palestine. More than 140 countries recognise a Palestinian state, including Ireland, doing so last May . The MPs' letter, co-ordinated by Labour's Sarah Champion, said: 'We are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the UK Government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment on a two-state solution; as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality.' Parliamentarians from Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents are among those who signed the letter. Champion acknowledged 'recognition alone will not end the suffering in Gaza or the rapid expansion of settlements and settler violence in the West Bank'. But she said it would be an important step on the path towards a two-state solution to end the war. The Labour MP added: 'Recognition would send a powerful symbolic message that we support the rights of the Palestinian people, that they are not alone and they need to maintain hope that there is a route that leads to lasting peace and security for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.' Ministers have faced growing calls to recognise a Palestinian state immediately amid mounting global anger over the starving population in Gaza. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this evening that such a move needed to be part of the 'pathway' to peace in the Middle East, which he and allies are working towards. 'That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace,' Starmer said. He added: 'Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. Advertisement 'But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.' He also said that the 'appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting' and added: 'The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel's disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible. In a statement released today alongside the leaders of France and Germany, Starmer urged 'all parties to bring an end to the conflict by reaching an immediate ceasefire'. Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also called for Israel to stop restricting the flow of aid into Gaza. Charities operating in Gaza have said Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing people there towards starvation, warning that they are seeing their own workers and Palestinians 'waste away'. Israel says it allows enough aid into the territory and faults delivery efforts by UN agencies, which say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of security. As he left for Scotland today, US President Donald Trump suggested that Macron's announcement that France would recognise Palestinian statehood was unimportant. 'What he says doesn't matter', Trump told reporters at the White House. Starmer will meet the US president during his five-day private trip to Scotland. US-led peace talks in Qatar were cut short yesterday, with Washington's special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. The deal under discussion is expected to include a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Aid supplies would be ramped up and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting truce. Hamas-led militants based in Gaza abducted 251 people in the 7 October attack in 2023 that triggered the war and killed about 1,200 people. Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive. Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

Ghislaine Maxwell finishes Epstein interviews with US Justice Department officials
Ghislaine Maxwell finishes Epstein interviews with US Justice Department officials

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Ghislaine Maxwell finishes Epstein interviews with US Justice Department officials

Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has finished one-and-a-half days of interviews with US Justice Department officials, answering questions 'about 100 different people', her lawyer said. 'She answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability,' David Oscar Markus told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, where Maxwell met with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. 'She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question, so we're very proud of her,' Mr Markus said. David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, talks to the media outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, after deputy attorney general Todd Blanche met with Maxwell (Colin Hackley/AP) Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is housed at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee. She was sentenced three years ago after being convicted of helping Epstein, a wealthy, well-connected financier, sexually abuse underage girls. Officials have said Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell's links to famous people, such as royals, presidents and billionaires, including US President Donald Trump. In a social media post this week, Mr Blanche said Maxwell would be interviewed because of President Trump's directive to gather and release any credible evidence about others who may have committed crimes. Mr Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago. But he faces ongoing questions about the Epstein case, overshadowing his administration's achievements. On Friday, reporters pressed the Republican president about pardoning Maxwell, but he deflected, emphasising his administration's successes. Mr Markus said Maxwell 'was asked maybe about 100 different people'. David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida (Colin Hackley/AP) 'The deputy attorney general is seeking the truth,' Mr Markus said. 'He asked every possible question, and he was doing an amazing job.' Mr Markus said he did not ask for anything for Maxwell in return, though he acknowledged that Mr Trump could pardon her. 'Listen, the president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,' Mr Markus said. Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would not release more files related to the Epstein investigation, despite promises that claimed otherwise from attorney general Pam Bondi. The department also said an Epstein client list does not exist. Maxwell is appealing against her conviction, based on the government's pledge years ago that any potential Epstein co-conspirators would not be charged, Mr Markus said. Epstein struck a deal with federal prosecutors in 2008 that shifted his case to Florida state court, where he pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. Epstein in 2019 and Maxwell in 2020 were charged in federal court in New York. Read More Bill Clinton reportedly sent Jeffrey Epstein note for birthday album

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