I would love for the Canadians getting all swoony over Carney today to explain why he launched into campaign rhetoric mode halfway through his big Davos speech, talking about ... how his government has cut taxes and reduced capital gains rates in Canada.

That stuff should have had no place in this speech.

But nevertheless, it was in there. Why?

My theory: he's worried about the upcoming budget implementation bill. Folks like Liz May are unlikely to support it after Carney's immediate (and imo predictable) about-face on climate and fossil fuels following the initial budget vote passing in November.

So, I think a major goal of this speech was to juice nationalist sentiment in order to scare opposition parties away from forcing an election.

Among many other things, the budget implementation bill contains amendments to other legislation - amendments that would allow federal cabinet ministers to, without the messy democratic business of going through parliament, grant exemptions to corporations from ANY law (except the Criminal Code) under vague and extremely subjective criteria like "in the public interest".

Carney also repeated his line that "Canada has what the world wants". It's one thing to say this to Canadians, but to say it to this Davos audience? These are the words of a salesperson, not a public servant.

And despite his rhetoric today, what has Carney actually done to oppose US hegemony? Announce a few trade and investment deals? With regimes like the one in Qatar?

Where is the revival of the DST? Why are we still pretending the US is a safe 3rd country for asylum seekers? Why are Canadian corporations working with ICE? Why is Carney entertaining being part of Trump's "Board of Peace"? Why did Carney cheer the attacks on Venezuela less than 3 weeks ago? Why are our security services being further integrated with the US? Why is the President of Palantir Canada still on Carney's Council for Canada-US Relations?

#CdnPoli