The left in Canada must reject the faux Canadian nationalism of neo-liberal politicians like Mark Carney as well as its outdated "left" version. Instead it must build new left parties based around anti-imperialism and opposition to fascism.
Carney speaks after winning the Liberal leadership -- image via video screenshot.
By Michael Laxer
The election of Mark Carney as leader of the Liberal Party and, therefore, the next Prime Minister of Canada, is the perfect outcome to cap the new wave of faux ultra nationalism that has gripped the country in the face of Trump's threats of massive tariffs and annexation.
Despite Carney now wrapping himself in the flag to join the list of newly minted defenders of the realm such as Ontario's Premier Doug Ford, Carney has long been deeply integrated into global capitalism and its inner workings. After a stint as the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 he went on to become the first non-British person selected to run the Bank of England, from 2013 to 2020. His entire tenure in the role was under profoundly reactionary, austerity driving Conservative Prime Ministers.
It is telling that obvious tools of the capitalist class like Carney and the profoundly corrupt Ford can so easily embrace a version of seemingly militant Canadian nationalism despite having played roles and taken actions that for many years worked against the interests of Canadian workers, the Canadian people and often even Canadian businesses.
While the righteous and potentially quite powerful wave of opposition to aggressive US nationalism and posturing -- which has a kind of nascent, underlying anti-imperialism -- could prove to be very useful were there a serious left party in Canada that could organize around it, this possibility should not be confused with an embrace of the long useless and dead version of "left" Canadian nationalism that once held sway in the seventies.
It should also absolutely not lead to an embrace of neo-liberal politicians like Carney or to the usual sheepdogging of people into the NDP by the useful idiot gatekeepers of the allegedly "left-of-ndp" social movement folks. There is no greater dead end for the Canadian left than the absurd notion that leftists should attempt to effect change through "movements" and leave the electoral field to parties like the NDP or Greens, a strategy that has been used to shepherd activists into de facto support for these parties by neutering them as a serious political threat. The "movement" strategy has gripped the Canadian left for decades and one need only take a look at how things have worked out to see it has been a spectacular failure akin to the also failed left strategy of working within the NDP.
While mobilizing people in the streets and through collective fronts is essential, so is building a real left alternative party that actually seeks to take power.
But any such new left party must eschew nationalism in favour of anti-imperialism and a critique of the western imperialist US dominated order, an order that all mainstream politicians in Canada from Carney to Ford to Jagmeet Singh have all thoroughly embraced. The irony of this new "nationalism" is that its proponents have all long been faithful lapdogs of the western imperialist order that the US was behind the creation of.
While Trump's actions are no doubt disorienting to these folks, their true colours have not changed. They just want to go back to the "good-old-days" when the US was run by what they see as rational imperialists like Genocide Joe Biden.
There was a time that the left nationalism of the NDP Waffle movement made a certain amount of sense especially as it embraced Quebec self-determination when almost all the left outside of Quebec did not. That was, however, over fifty years ago.
Today's Canada is an equal and rather aggressive partner in western imperialist and capitalist goals and is an advanced capitalist state within the modern neo-liberal globalized economic order including being home to and backing shamefully exploitative Canadian capitalist companies in sectors like mining, resource extraction, etc.
People talking about "left" nationalism now are talking about supporting one of the most aggressively imperialist fake nation states in the world. One need only point to Canada's fronting of the Lima Group as a recent heinous example among many.
There is nothing left about Canadian nationalism in any form at this point in Canadian history. It is a dangerous approach that emboldens the right ultimately as this is no longer a country where nationalism can have a progressive or leftist outcome. We are seeing this unfold now in real time with Ford, among others, putting himself out as "Captain Canada" as part of a strategy that helped him cruise to a very easy third majority triumph in the recent Ontario election.
While booing the US national anthem can be deeply satisfying and while there is certainly no harm in boycotting US products when you can actually figure out what they are in this globalized economy, this must not lead to support for the colonialist, imperialist, capitalist Canadian state and its capitalist companies.
Actual support for anti-imperialism or opposition to the new US aggressive neo-fascism and lining up with mainstream politicians and Canadian corporations opportunistically embracing the "Buy Canadian" mantra cannot be confused with each other as they are not at all the same.
Support for buying from Galen Weston or other vile Canadian capitalists and billionaires is not a serious left strategy, period. It is easy for reactionaries and racists like Doug Ford to rebrand themselves as nationalists because nationalism in advanced capitalist countries is inherently reactionary.
Inherently. This is not 1970 anymore. The left Canadian nationalist strategy, in so far as it was ever legitimate, has aged rather badly.
Oppose western imperialism. Oppose US imperialism. Oppose Trump's fascism. Oppose the western capitalist order that has created all of this, including Canada. Oppose the incorporation of Canada into the fascist US on those terms.
But make no mistake, Canada is a central part of the capitalist and imperialist western world order and support for Canadian nationalism, as opposed to support for ending Canadian complicity in the warmongering and violence of western imperialism, is at best misguided and most usually reactionary. As is any support for reactionaries and neo-liberal corporate puppets like Mark Carney.
There is absolutely no strategic or moral advantage for leftists to embrace the poisoned chalice of Canadian nationalism anymore. There is every reason to simply stand up against the evil actions and aggressions of the US empire instead.
The two are not the same thing.
Michael Laxer is a leftist writer and activist based in Toronto. A former NDP candidate and Spokesperson for the Socialist Party of Ontario, he is the publisher and editor of The Left Chapter.
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