Canada must unite under strong leadership to address economic challenges

In the spring of 1940, a beleaguered British nation turned to the maverick Winston Churchill in hopes that he could galvanize their fighting spirit. The Nazis were blitzkrieging their way across Europe; meanwhile, the Brits were in a state of atrophy following years of inaction and deluded hopes of appeasement. Upon taking the helm as prime minister, Churchill, never known for his humility, made a fateful decision: he formed a coalition government. He assembled those who, in his estimation, represented the nation's finest -- regardless of political stripe. Churchill knew that only the brightest lights could overcome the darkness of the times. He brought on adversaries who, only a few months prior, had written him off as a political corpse.

Churchill's mandate began at one of the most tumultuous times in history. So will that of Canada's next Liberal leader, at least for a short time. Either Mark Carney or Chrystia Freeland will take the reins at a moment when the country faces serious economic peril.

Canada is about to be tested in ways it has not been for generations. Whether before, on, or soon after February 1, it looks as if tariffs are coming. As pre-war Britain did, we have allowed the fabric of our nation to fray by pursuing policies of convenience -- policies designed for the world we want, not the world we have. We have ceded our strength in inexcusable ways.

Nowhere is this more glaring than in our energy policies: almost no nation on Earth has more energy than we do, yet we cannot get these resources to our own people. Without Enbridge Line 5 carrying oil from Wisconsin, Toronto Star readers would have mere days before the tanks of the city's ambulances, fire trucks and police cars would empty. That is what ceding your sovereignty looks like.

We have starved our technology ecosystem, using taxpayer money to subsidize foreign tech companies. Intellectual property is the new oil, and we've been paying the international giants to develop, baby, develop!

We have underfunded our armed forces to such an extent that they are nowhere near equipped to meet our most basic commitments, either at home or abroad. Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, the former Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, called the readiness of our military "borderline atrocious." In an internal report on Canada's ability to project strength, he stated, "readiness is all about measuring the ability of your armed forces to do what it is they're expected to do. And fundamentally, that's all about going somewhere and fighting. And, you know, it's a pretty dire situation when you're ... not where you need to be."

Inaction on basic energy security, paying our competitors to compete against us and an inability to be a credible ally: these are damning truths. We have put the knife to our own throat.

So here we are: politically weak and economically unprepared to withstand the rough seas of international geopolitics. We face a stark choice: we can thrash about as we have been, or we can unite under a national banner. It would take incredible leadership to achieve the latter, but defining moments such as the one we have just entered transcend partisan politics. They demand acts of political heroism. Canada's premiers have, for the most part, done a noble job of filling the leadership vacuum that exists federally -- but that cannot continue forever. It is still early, but conversations with grassroots party members, as well as a number of high-profile endorsements, seem to indicate that the Liberals are rallying around Mark Carney. The alternative feels like a page that needs to be turned.

What would Carney bring to the Office of the Prime Minister? At minimum, a deep reserve of executive leadership experience and a deftness in handling the choppiest of international financial markets. If Carney becomes prime minister, I hope he is able to assemble a team of the best and the brightest, regardless of politics, and start laying the economic underpinnings for the durable future we need.

Of course, how long he'd have in office is an open question. And he'd face an uphill battle against a very skilled politician in Pierre Poilievre, who enjoys an enormous lead in the polls. Poilievre can politic with the best of them, and he has surrounded himself with a team that knows how to win. That said, Carney would have a window to assert himself, and if one of his first political decisions were to form an all-hands-on-deck cabinet, it would speak volumes. He could set a new tone based on the advantages we enjoy as a nation. He would have an opportunity to craft a Throne Speech that places the government firmly in the centre of the political spectrum, where the vast majority of Canadians reside. He could remove measures that stifle innovation, such as the increase to the capital-gains tax, which is proceeding even in the face of lower taxes in the United States. He could bolster our ability to project strength in the North -- on land, in the sea and in the sky. He could meet with the premiers and formulate a pan-Canadian approach to Donald Trump and the realities of the modern international marketplace. He could disagree without demonizing, and he could talk to his peers and opponents, not at them.

All this would be a start. It's a longshot, to be sure, but campaigns do matter. Events, dear boy, are unpredictable.

For Canada to be the generous and inclusive place we want it to be, we need to be strong, wealthy and clear-eyed about the world around us. And we can be all those things. When Churchill visited Canada in December 1941, he recounted how a future French collaborationist told him that Britain would "have her neck wrung like a chicken" by the Nazis.

Churchill replied: "Some chicken! Some neck!"

That is the chutzpah we need today. We've seen it from some of Canada's most adept leaders, such as Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper. More of that, please!

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King once called Canada a "fireproof house," and, at the time, he was correct. But that day -- and that world -- is long gone. In this new world, almost no country is as well-placed to excel as ours. We just need to get our elbows up and deliver on the promise of Canada, the finest spot on the globe. I wouldn't rather be standing anywhere else.