Sdf410

Prime Minister Carney’s address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg rested on several foundational errors. The claim that freedom was won “thanks to the heroism of the European resistance” is historically false. Western Europe was liberated by the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The subsequent emancipation of the Soviet empire was the product of the American strategy of containment. Canada’s role was particularly notable: a volunteer force from a country that had never been attacked or threatened by the Axis powers. The European institutions have succeeded in reducing internal economic barriers and managing inter-state cooperation. As an economic administration, however, they have not been a success at all. In 2008 the GDP of Europe and the United States were roughly equal; the United States now stands at 140 percent of the EU’s. Much of this relative decline is attributable to the prolonged suppression of fossil fuels—an agenda Carney himself promoted for years. Carney also omitted the decisive commercial reality: Canada sends roughly 70 percent of its exports to the United States (98% of which is unaffected by the recent tariffs) and only 6 percent to Europe. The United States accounts for half of the Canadian economy; Canada accounts for three percent of theirs. These proportions are not altered by elaborate metaphors about the transplantation of trees between Vimy and Milliken. Until Canada recovers the relative prosperity it enjoyed with the United States a decade ago, there is little strategic sense in the prime minister travelling to the Rhine to deliver a wistful reflection on the failure of Canada and Europe to produce a superior political ethos while remaining economically competitive.