The Carney government is publishing some serious stacks of paper describing how it plans to make Canada relevant again, including a national security strategy, released on Thursday; a new defence policy, already in effect but not yet published; and a full foreign policy.
asserted
Canada → publish → effect
While no country has ever sunk a flotilla or defended its borders with glossy-covered policy documents, these three are nevertheless important.
asserted
three → sink → documents
They will give us, at long last, a clearer picture of how Prime Minister Mark Carney hopes to reshape a world thrown on its side by U.S. President Donald Trump.
asserted
Carney → give → Trump
I’ve been speaking with insiders and experts lately, trying to jam together the strategic puzzle pieces and see the bigger picture.
asserted
I → speak → picture
I’ll start with the trickiest of the three: our new foreign policy, set to be released before the end of the year.
asserted
I → start → year
“My sense,” said Adam Chapnick, a professor at the Canadian Forces College, “is that the government has a firmer idea of how it wants to position Canada in the world than we have had in at least a decade.
asserted
we → say → decade
And in order to get the public service aligned with the government’s vision, there’s a belief that we have to put this stuff on paper.”
asserted
we → get → paper
Canada hasn’t published a foreign policy since 2005.
asserted
Canada → publish → 2005
In 1970, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau dubbed his sweeping agenda to navigate between the Cold War superpowers “Foreign Policy for Canadians,” and he published it in six slickly produced booklets, intended for public consumption.
asserted
he → dub → consumption
Carney’s pitch is well known by now.
asserted
pitch → know → ?
The prime minister believes the middle powers, including Canada, should band together to reduce the leverage wielded by hegemons such as the United States and China.
asserted
powers → believe → States
And he hasn’t waited for the release of this policy to begin re-engaging with the world.
asserted
he → wait → world
He’s spent the past year shaking hands and signing deals — just this week, he hosted the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in Ottawa, followed by a phalanx of European Union officials in Montreal.
asserted
he → spend → Montreal
A truly ambitious foreign policy doesn’t merely describe the world we want; it also tells us how to get there.
asserted
it → describe → us
And Global Affairs Canada — beset with staffing problems and lacking the capacity to do big things — isn’t ready.
asserted
Canada → beset → things
The department, which runs our network of embassies and missions abroad, is the tool through which we conduct diplomacy, negotiate trade deals and secure new customers.
asserted
we → run → customers
But it suffers under an aging bureaucracy and sagging morale.
asserted
it → suffer → bureaucracy
Canadian foreign policy — and our capacity to execute it — degenerated after the Cold War.
asserted
policy → execute → War
In 2023, a Senate committee found that two decades of declining recruitment and investment had “undermined Canada’s ability to influence and shape global issues and effect change.
asserted
decades → find → change
The chair of that committee was Senator Peter Boehm, a career diplomat who served as Sherpa for multiple G7 summits.
asserted
who → serve → summits
“We could be doing a lot more,” he told me last month in his East Block office, whose walls are lined with souvenirs from his long career.
uncertain
walls → do → career
“The question is how we do it and how to push it.”
asserted
we → do → it
Boehm agreed the “multi-headed beast” of Global Affairs is a limiting factor.
asserted
beast → agree → Affairs
It is, as his committee’s study found, a top-heavy, risk-averse department beset by malaise, lacking specialization, painfully risk-averse and without the surge capacity to deal with a world of colliding crises.
asserted
study → find → crises
One damning indictment summed up our efforts as “less foreign, more office”; another concluded, “much of Canada’s diplomatic presence is a Potemkin village.”
asserted
much → sum → presence
The report spurred then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to task a senior diplomat with modernizing operations at Fort Pearson, as the department’s headquarters is sometimes called.
asserted
headquarters → spur → Pearson
Shortly after, Global Affairs released two big, if vague, strategies — one on the Indo-Pacific and another on Africa.
asserted
Affairs → release → Africa
Both led to a careful expansion of Canada’s diplomatic presence abroad.
asserted
Both → lead → presence
Carney inherited a foreign service that has been cautiously trying to repair itself, yet many of the problems Boehm and his fellow senators identified remain.
asserted
Boehm → inherit → problems
Some of this is down to resources, Boehm said.
asserted
Boehm → say → resources
“If you’re going to really take on change and transform, you can’t do it without putting more money into it.”
asserted
you → go → it
Global Affairs has a morale problem, too.
asserted
Affairs → have → problem
“When you have a public service that is both being pushed really hard, in which morale is not that high,” Chapnick said, “you can only, it seems to me, institute so much change at once.”
asserted
it → have → change
Canada once boasted an enviable foreign service that functioned as a real meritocracy.
asserted
that → boast → meritocracy
Fort Pearson attracted bright young mandarins, eager to climb the ranks and earn better and better foreign posts and serve in ever more critical roles abroad.
asserted
Pearson → attract → roles
This system has, to some degree, fallen apart.
asserted
system → fall → degree
It is increasingly common for staff at Global Affairs to spend their whole careers in Ottawa.
asserted
staff → spend → Ottawa
Those who serve in the missions, meanwhile, have seen prestigious posts go to political appointees: just last month, Carney sent one of his senior staffers to become ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
asserted
Carney → serve → Emirates
Budget cuts have only soured the mood at the department.
asserted
cuts → sour → department
For Canada to matter again, and to become richer in the process, we need more talent, more specialists, more risk-takers and more polyglots working in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
asserted
we → matter → Affairs
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
