Critical Minerals Are Now Strategic Infrastructure

They have nevertheless accepted the strategic reality: critical minerals now belong to the core of economic security; they cannot be treated as a normal commodity file, left to scattered private decisions and recovered after the fact by public declarations. If the United States and the European Union can organize a working framework under those conditions, Canada has no strategic reason to stand apart from comparable cooperation with Washington.

That conclusion does not revive automatic continentalism. Mark Carney has been right to warn that Canada cannot remain overexposed to a single market or to decisions made in Washington. His emphasis on Europe, the G7, and broader coalitions amongst like-minded economies reflects a needed correction to Canadian habit.

The United States has become a less predictable partner, and no Canadian government should let critical minerals policy become another subordinate clause in bilateral trade management. But diversification loses force when it becomes avoidance. Treating Europe as the alternative to the United States would leave Canada with a second narrowness in place of the first.

Canada’s Leverage, If It Can Use It

Critical minerals are one of the few fields where Canada can gain leverage with its........

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