PM’s Canada Day message balances history, uncertain present

Prime Minister Mark Carney says our ‘values are being tested’ while speaking about the effort to improve the country and its economy.

Prime Minister Mark Carney called for national unity and growth Tuesday in a video address celebrating Canada Day.

“One hundred and fifty-eight years ago, a few provinces bet on a big idea: That they’d be stronger together than they ever could be apart. They were right,” he said in a video recorded in front of Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.

“They became a new federation that’s now grown into our strong, bilingual, multicultural, ambitious country.”

Lasting just over two minutes, the address wove together Canada’s pre- and post-Confederation past with the federal government’s policy goals for the coming months and years, from addressing interprovincial trade barriers to a renewed prioritization on defence spending.

“Our story didn’t begin at Confederation. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have called this land home,” he said.

“And our country’s next chapter will be written together, in true partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Metis.”

Past, present and future

In his remarks Tuesday, Carney evoked moments of Canadian heroism, from battles at Vimy Ridge and in Normandy during the First and Second World Wars, to the story of Gander, N.L., where more than three-dozen flights from around the world were redirected in the hours following the September 11th terror attacks in New York City.

“Our shared history has been marked by inflection points; moments where Canada has had to step up,” Carney said.

“Now, we face another such moment. The world is changing, old friendships are fraying, our economy is being buffeted by a trade war we didn’t start, our values are being tested by attacks on democracy and freedoms that we must resist.”

It’s not the first time this year that a prime minister has called attention to those kinds of moments.

At the outset of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, which began with sweeping import tariffs on Canadian goods and has since spread around the world, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau referenced some of the same chapters in Canadian history during a direct address to the American people.

“From the beaches of Normandy, to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula; from the fields of Flanders, to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you … we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people,” he said in the February press conference.

“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world.”

In the months since, the trade war has dominated the cross-border political landscape as U.S. tariffs have been imposed, removed, postponed and modified, sparking an ever-changing Canadian federal response and boycotts against a variety of American industries, from tourism to imported alcohol.

Most recently, the federal government announced it would rescind a digital services tax affecting U.S. technology firms, prompting Trump to return to the bargaining table on a prospective new trade deal between the two countries.

Meanwhile, federal and provincial leaders have sought to remove regulatory and logistical obstacles to domestic trade.

“We’re breaking down barriers across this country so you can buy Canadian everywhere, and work anywhere,” Carney said in his Canada Day address.

Also referenced were Canada’s Armed Forces.

In late June, Carney pledged that Canada would spend five per cent of its GDP on defence by 2035, more than double the two per cent benchmark expected of Canada by its NATO obligations, which he has said Canada will meet by the end of this fiscal year.

“Together, we’ll rebuild, re-arm and reinvest in our Armed Forces, because Canadian leadership is defined not only by the strength of our values, but also by the value of our strength.”

Amid what Carney called an increasingly “divided and dangerous” world, he commended Canada for pulling together.

“Canadians are uniting. Together, we will build one Canadian economy, connected by major projects, powered by Canadian energy, transformed by Canadian technology and crafted by Canadian workers,” he said.

“This is the greatest nation on Earth. Together, we’ll keep making it even better. Happy Canada Day.”