CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The Politics of Canada in the Shadow of Empire: a Q&A with Yves Engler

Photograph Soruce: The White House – Public Domain

Canadian foreign policy is at times presented as rights-based and as an example of textbook multilateralism. The left often argues, however, that beneath the surface lies a politics of power that aligns Ottawa’s interests with the Pentagon’s. This raises questions about the country’s role in peace and conflict. In this exclusive interview from Montreal for CounterPunch, writer and activist Yves Engler, co-author of Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy(Baraka Books, 2024), looks at the contradictions shaping Canada’s global politics under Prime Minister Mark Carney. He covers Canada’s relationship with the US and the overall limitations of Canadian sovereignty. Further, Engler comments on the nation’s response to Gaza and the unprecedented protest movements it has inspired across the country. He looks at the future of Canadian Liberal foreign policy as the hemisphere tilts closer towards fascism.

Daniel Falcone: You covered a lot regarding Canada’s foreign policy in The House of Mirrors: Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy (Black Rose Books, 2020). In author Peter McFarlane’s recent work, Last Call for Canada: Sovereign Nation or Vassal State (Baraka Books, 2026), he cites George Grant’s Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (McGill–Queen’s University Press, 1965). Grant raised initial concerns about Canadian sovereignty at the hands of US influence. How does Canada’s relationship with the US impact its ability to pursue a “progressive” foreign policy in the Mark Carney era, especially concerning the Middle East?

Yves Engler: The elite in Canada see the world and profit from it in ways that are very similar to the elite in the US. There is opposition to Trump that can elicit a nationalist backlash, so there is hostility in that sense. But if you look at the long-term picture, at least since World War II or arguably going back more than a century, there has been this basic view of the world organized around profit that is remarkably similar on both sides of the border. You can see that historically. For instance, when the US occupied Cuba, the Royal Bank of Canada was the preferred bank because at that time there were restrictions on the international operations of US banks. Thus the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), still Canada’s largest bank today, became the main financial institution for the US occupation of Cuba. That is just one very concrete example of Canadian capital benefiting from US imperial domination around the world.

That must be a central part of the discussion. Obviously, you can point out innumerable examples of it. Carney, I think, is somebody who just sees the world the way an international banker does. That is what he has been for the better part of 30-plus years at Goldman Sachs, Brookfield Asset Management, as governor of the Bank of Canada, and then governor of the Bank of England. He sees the world through a certain Eurocentric capitalist lens. But he is also a leader boxed in by Canada’s relationship with the US. (See: recent US placement of heavy tariffs, going up to 50%, on Canadian metals like aluminum; crude oil and energy products are exempt from these threats). So then, the US relationship obviously has an impact on whether the Carney government is going to oppose the genocide in Gaza or support Trump’s attack on Iran.

In the case of Iran, Carney came out almost immediately to endorse it. He later backed away rhetorically but his initial statement was supportive. More important than the rhetoric, however, is that Canada has a base in Kuwait located on a US base with about 200 Canadian troops stationed there. Canada also has bases (“operational support hubs”) in Jamaica, Senegal, and Germany that are explicitly part of supporting the Pentagon’s global military infrastructure. There are also recent reports that Canadian officers oversaw the US base in Qatar from the middle of last year through the end of the year. When Israel and the US attacked Iran during the 12-day conflict, it was a Canadian overseeing air operations. These are all parts of the uniquely close ties between the Canadian and US militaries. There is no other military that is more integrated with the US military than Canada’s, with hundreds of formal agreements between them.

Therefore, the Canadian military is very much structured to assist the US military around the world. It is not structured to defend Canada against the only country that could realistically invade it, which is of course the US. The point is that there is a curtailment of Canadian sovereignty in a fundamental sense [via Fortress North America]. But Canada’s capitalist elite do not actually want sovereignty in some ways. They want to be part of the US empire, just as they were once part of the British Empire. Concretely, the Canadian........

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