PM’s rallying cry exuded passion — and irony

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s passionate speech to global leaders last week was simply ironic.

Carney spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about how the “middle powers” of the world must work together if they are going to survive the bullying ways of economic superpowers like the United States, China and Russia.

“Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration,” Carney said. “But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”

Carney said the solution was not protectionism, economic barriers, and “building higher walls” but “something more ambitious” — what he called the construction of a “dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.”

The prime minister’s rallying cry was for a unification of “developed” countries like Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and across Europe to find ways to work together against the many looming, divisive, and potentially devastating threats of the world — such as U.S. President Donald Trump and his growing imperialist interests and threats.

Setting aside the fact Carney’s call appears to leave behind poorer countries and reifies the same economic principles that led to the divisions he decries, the speech excited many — with some suggesting it might signal plans for a spring federal election.

For Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the words were ironic.

To start, most Indigenous communities in this country feel at odds with the Carney government’s plans to aggressively step up resource development projects and frame these as “in the national interest.”

In fact, relationships between Ottawa and Indigenous leaders could be said to be some of the least unified in recent memory, with many drawing comparisons to the days of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

For many Indigenous Peoples, Carney’s call for a “web of connections” seems to begin and end in Davos.

It’s also ironic for Indigenous Peoples to see Carney argue for an end to protectionism through the construction of a “middle power” gang of countries that have built their economies off of exploiting the environment and Indigenous Peoples.

Anyone can appreciate the sentiment of collectively standing up to a bully but the (re-)creation of new groups who share an imperialist past that has commodified the world — in order to fight an imperialist threat seeking to commodify the world — seems to repeat the same problems, not stop them.

Lastly, though, the most ironic part of Carney’s speech is the fact he delivered it.

When Europeans arrived in the “new world” more than five centuries ago, they brought with them selfishness, individuality, and notions of property and commerce that carved up the world for western powers and created a capitalist system that dominated the world.

Simply put, imperialistic Europeans did not have much interest in the values of the Indigenous cultures and communities they encountered and colonized — who overcame winters and mosquitoes and competitive pressures by committing to collectivity, sharing above individualism, and creating treaties with all living beings.

The newcomers to this continent, who were governed by kings and popes, knew next to nothing about democracy until they encountered civilizations who sat in circles and shared ideas and stories in order to compromise and make decisions collectively.

Without Indigenous Peoples, these settlers would have embodied teachings solely built from their European ancestors and repeated the same competitive, individualistic and capitalistic systems that divided their former home amongst feudal and religious lines.

Later, Canadians used these experiences with Indigenous communities to build a democratic country based in free speech, social welfare policies like health care and a national pension plan, and multiculturalism.

In other words, Canadians learned values of sharing, collective responsibility and working with everyone to overcome a harsh environment through working, living and creating relationships with Indigenous nations; not magically on their own.

This week, a Canadian leader — formed by and leading a society built on values that are inherently and foundationally Indigenous — travelled to the continent of his ancestors and announced to the world that community, collectivity and sharing are the correctives to selfishness, bullying and division.

He said these values might even just stop imperialism and save the world.

How ironic.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca