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COMMENTARY: Trading up: A leader for a perilous moment

How Carney plans to diversify Canada’s economy without selling out the climate

Mark Carney’s critics have already made up their minds. They see the consumer carbon tax’s elimination, the EV mandate’s repeal, and the Alberta pipeline deal as proof that his trade diversification agenda is a Trojan horse for fossil fuel expansion.

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And yet — if we take the prime minister at his word, and there is real evidence to suggest we should — a different picture emerges. Not a perfect one. Not a comfortable one. But a picture in which protecting the environment and diversifying Canada’s economy are not enemies, but partners.

There is a reason the free world is watching Mark Carney. In an era of strongmen and slogans, he is a generational leader — a rare figure who commands the respect of boardrooms, central banks and climate negotiators alike. When he speaks, markets listen. When he moves, allies follow.

There is growing talk, and not just in Ottawa, that he is the man of the year — the one leader with the credibility, the relationships, and the sheer force of intellect to steer liberal democracies through the storm of tariffs, autocrats, and climate disruption. That is not flattery. That is the weight of the moment.

The carbon competitiveness gambit

The core of Carney’s strategy is carbon competitiveness. While he scrapped the consumer carbon tax, he has doubled down on industrial carbon pricing — the policy that actually matters for reducing emissions from Canada’s largest polluters.

The landmark agreement with Alberta establishes a carbon price rising to $130 per tonne by 2040. Lower than previous federal targets, yes. But real, enforceable, and designed to provide the investment certainty that a patchwork of regulations never could. As the National Observer noted, Carney is using his support for Alberta’s pipeline aspirations as leverage to secure the province’s co-operation on industrial carbon pricing — a trade-off that will drive clean investment long before any pipeline breaks ground.

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