With Canada’s 2025 election campaign now over, Canadians can breathe a sigh of relief that we no longer have to hear Mike Myers and Prime Minister Mark Carney give us our daily TV reminder to keep our “elbows up” against U.S. President Donald Trump.
Carney largely rode on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to earn a fourth consecutive Liberal term in government.
But what exactly does Carney mean by elbows up? Is it anything more than an empty slogan?
Canadians will soon find out.
If Carney wants to get Canada’s elbows up against the United States, he should put his money where his mouth is and adopt policies that make Canada’s economy less dependent on the Americans.
That doesn’t mean more government. It means less of it.
Take, for example, internal trade.
Before calling a snap election, Carney met with Canada’s premiers and claimed they all agreed to tear down Canada’s internal trade barriers by Canada Day.
If that’s true, that’s great news.
But Carney now needs to show leadership to get it done.
Canada’s provinces currently have non-tariff barriers that block all kinds of internal trade in Canada. Canada’s internal trade regime is neither free nor fair.
Those barriers are costing the Canadian economy $200 billion a year.
So far, three provinces — Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island — have joined the movement and introduced legislation to make real free trade a reality in Canada.
Carney’s first act in his new term should be to coax Canada’s other provincial governments to join them.
Freer internal trade means more jobs, economic growth, and economic diversification away from the United States.
If Carney wants Canada’s elbows up, he needs to get Canada’s internal trade barriers down.
Then there’s oil and natural gas.
The Trudeau government killed $670 billion worth of oil and natural gas projects over the past 10 years, either outright or through tying projects up in years-long permitting processes.
Nothing in Carney’s past suggests he’s a friend to the oil and gas sector. In fact, at times, Carney has been an outright antagonist, calling for 80% of Canada’s oil and natural gas resources to stay in the ground.
Right now, Canada’s energy sector is dependent on the U.S. because we don’t have enough pipelines to get Canadian oil and natural gas to market. And the pipelines we do have go through the United States.
If Carney genuinely wants Canadians to go elbows up on the Americans, he needs to greenlight pipeline projects here in Canada so we can meet growing demand in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.
Once again, the recipe is simple: Less red tape, freer commerce and less dependency on our southern neighbours.
Finally, there’s international trade.
Carney has talked a good game about needing to diversify Canada’s trade away from the Americans through more trade with other nations, including old allies like the United Kingdom.
If Carney is serious about that, trade negotiators should be sent to countries like the U.K. and Japan tomorrow to start negotiating new trade deals.
When the Stephen Harper Conservatives were in power, they negotiated free trade deals with scores of countries and expanded Canada’s global market access significantly. But under the Justin Trudeau Liberals, negotiating more international trade agreements went on the back burner.
Canada can’t afford to be lax on pursuing more international trade anymore. With 77% of Canada’s exports now going to the United States and the threat of American tariffs very real, we need to prioritize trade with other nations.
But Carney can’t just talk about it. He needs to make it happen. That means negotiating comprehensive free trade deals with new partners so that Canadian exporters can better access new markets through fewer trade barriers and Canadian consumers can access more goods at a better price.
Elbows up proved to be a great slogan for Carney during the campaign. If he really wants Canada to get its elbows up against the Americans, Carney needs to tear down trade barriers, greenlight energy projects, and negotiate new deals for Canadian firms to access new markets.
Originally published here
