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FIRST READING: Mark Carney’s most breathtaking u-turns

Lots of politicians change their minds, but not like this

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FIRST READING: Mark Carney’s most breathtaking u-turns Back to video

After initially supporting U.S.-led strikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran, on Tuesday Prime Minister Mark Carney suddenly changed his tune.

On Saturday, after the first reports emerged of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being killed in an opening barrage of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, Carney issued a statement praising the operation.  

“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” it read.

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But just three days later, Carney accused the U.S. of acting illegally. “The United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting with allies, including Canada,” he wrote.

The second statement acknowledged that “two decades of negotiations and diplomatic efforts” had done nothing to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Nevertheless, Carney concluded that the solution was “rapid de-escalation,” followed by more diplomacy.

“Diplomatic engagement is essential to avoid a wider and deeper conflict,” he wrote.

(And, since this story went to press, he seemed to change course again, telling a press conference in Australia that “one can never categorically rule out” that Canada might end up being a military participant in the Iran action). 

While any normal political career will incur a record of flip-flops and u-turns, the habit can be particularly brazen with Carney. In just 12 months as a professional politician, he’s overseen several dramatic and unexplained policy turnarounds, usually in the realm of foreign affairs.  

Three of the most unabashed are below.

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Trump: From rapacious annexationist to “transformational president”

Carney won the 2025 election due largely to his positioning as the candidate best-poised to face down U.S. President Donald Trump. And that still forms the core of his popularity to this day.

Multiple polls show that Carney’s base remains disproportionately composed of voters who believe that Canada’s number one issue is U.S. relations. Those intending to vote Conservative, meanwhile, usually put “unaffordability” or “crime” in the top spot, with U.S. relations barely making the top 10.

In an April campaign speech, Carney famously positioned the Trump administration as hungering for Canadian domination. “The U.S. wants our land, wants our resources, wants our water, wants our country,” he said. He also accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of being a man who “worships at the altar of Donald Trump.”

Once elected, however, Carney’s encounters with the U.S. leader would be marked by extended paeans to Trump’s wisdom and leadership, often delivered in front of news cameras. “You’re a transformational president,” Carney said in a May visit to the White House, before listing off a set of accomplishments including a “relentless focus on the American worker” and “ending the scourge of fentanyl.”

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He did the same thing at the G7 summit in Alberta the next month. After wishing Trump a happy birthday, Carney told the president “the G7 is nothing without U.S. leadership, and so, and your personal leadership, leadership of the United States — many issues, geopolitics, economic, technology — and working hand in hand with the United States, Canada and the United States, and the other G7 partners, with your leadership.”

China: From “security threat” to “strategic partner”

It was also during the 2025 campaign that Carney said during a leaders’ debate that China was Canada’s “biggest security threat.” The question was open-ended; Carney was asked his opinion about Canada’s leading security threat, and he answered in a full sentence, “I think the biggest security threat to Canada is China.”

Fast-forward to January, and Carney was in Beijing to strike a “strategic partnership” with the People’s Republic of China.

Carney is far from the first world leader to cite China as a threat while seeking closer Chinese trade relations. But in an echo of his approach to Trump, Carney would make a point of delivering a fawning soliloquy to dictator Xi Jinping.

“We are heartened by the leadership of President Xi Jinping, and the speed with which our relationship has progressed in recent months,” he said. “I believe the progress that we have made, and the partnership, sets us up well for the new world order.”

Carbon tax: From “a cornerstone” to “too divisive”

Before his entry into Canadian politics, much of Carney’s professional career was spent in the pursuit of green policy. He was the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, and was the driver behind the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a climate-focused investment consortium that ceased operations last October after most of its members defected en-masse.

During Carney’s climate years, he was frequently on record as calling consumer carbon taxes one of the world’s most effective public policy tools.

“The Canadian federal carbon pricing framework is a model for others,” he wrote in his 2021 book Values, adding that “meaningful carbon prices are a cornerstone of any effective climate policy framework.”

Carney’s very first action as prime minister, however, was to initiate the tax’s abolition and claim that it hadn’t worked. “The consumer carbon tax is not working. It’s become too divisive — at a time when Canada needs to be united,” he explained in a statement.

The Parti Québécois (which this newsletter recently profiled for its agenda of anti-“wokisme”) may now be on track to lose the next election, despite more than two years of dominating Quebec opinion polls. A new poll has them neck and neck with the Quebec Liberal Party (31 per cent vs. 30 per cent), with one of the likely reasons being that Quebec voters are turned off by their promise to hold a third separation referendum if elected. However, given that the Quebec vote is currently split between four main contenders (CAQ and the Quebec Conservatives being the other two), even 31 per cent would be enough for a majority government, as per a projection prepared by election modeler Raymond Liu.

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

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