ALBERS: Canada, an unserious country

By Western Standard Guest Columnist

James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership developmentAs a confessed political junkie — and one who can still read without needing to be told what to think — I watched, slack-jawed, as the U.S. Congress wrestled the leviathan known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. A title more American than apple pie, and certainly more honest than most government press releases.This was no minor procedural matter. It was a pivot point in the history of the Republican Party. A miracle, almost, that the Grand Old Party managed not to aim its blunderbuss at its own foot — and with discipline rare as hen’s teeth, pushed through legislation that actually aligned with its stated principles. Democracy at full throttle, with every inch of procedural trench warfare on display.Now contrast that energetic mess — that kinetic theatre of governance — with the cold, listless silence from our own Parliament up here in Canada. While American lawmakers are burning midnight oil, our own politicians are burning daylight — on vacation, on recess, on hiatus, on whatever euphemism currently passes for political truancy.Enter Prime Minister Mark Carney — the man who came down from Olympus (or the Bank of England) with a halo of international credibility and the whispery aura of elite competence. And what has he given Canadians for his first six months of effort?A tax cut — that was billed as an $840-a-year lifeline for the struggling middle class — revealed by our own Parliamentary Budget Office to be a paltry $280. That’s 77 cents a day. Barely enough for a Timbit, let alone the coffee.We got a trade bill — the One Canadian Economy Act — passed with much fanfare before Canada Day, but it remains a framework with no projects, no funding, no timelines, and, most importantly, no impact.We got a unilateral “rescinding” of the Digital Services Tax to appease the Americans — except, awkwardly, the Prime Minister doesn’t have the authority to scrap an act of Parliament. He can delay. He cannot delete.We received vague vows to meet NATO’s 2% defence target. Grand promises with ghostly price tags, made without a budget to anchor them. Words floating on air.And yes, Carney presided over the G7 summit — a performance no doubt thrilling to the cocktail-circuit crowd — but which, in practical terms, yielded no binding agreements, no trade deals, no real return to the Canadian taxpayer. The much-touted “Strategic Partnership of the Future” with the EU was inked in glitter, not ink. And while the EU drops carbon tariffs on American goods, we in Canada keep ours — disadvantaging our industries, hobbling our competitiveness. With friends like these, who needs carbon taxes?It brings to mind a joke: Three seagulls sat on a pier. Two decided to fly off. How many remained? Three. Because intention isn’t action. Mr. Carney — and Canadians — are now trapped on that pier. Perched. Motionless. Waiting.Meanwhile, the silence in Ottawa is deafening. No talk of reversing the EV mandates. No talk of repealing Bill C-69, which chased $600 billion in investment away from our resource sector. No mention of the other policies that Alberta and Saskatchewan — the economic workhorses of this Confederation — have begged to be addressed. Nothing. Nada. Nil.And as Ottawa naps, the economy slouches toward contraction, with Canadians paying more for less, and receiving governance more symbolic than substantive.Now look again across the 49th parallel. What has President Trump — polarizing, loud, relentless Trump — managed to do?Extended his 2017 tax cuts, keeping $4.6 trillion in taxpayers’ pockets over the next decade.Finalized three trade deals (UK, Vietnam, China), with five more in various stages.Brokered four ceasefires — including one in the Middle East and another in Africa.Overseen job growth that exceeded expectations and pushed unemployment down.Agree or disagree with the man, he has done. There is motion. There is measurable output.This is not about lionizing Trump. It is about recognizing action. He moves the levers of power. Carney, by comparison, contemplates them.And so, the United States declares — in diplomatic whispers and leaked memos — that Canada is no longer a serious country. And how could we argue? What serious country closes up shop during a declared economic “crisis”? What serious country thinks ambition is a substitute for achievement?Canada is not in trouble because it lacks talent or potential. It is in trouble because it has leadership that confuses press releases with policy and optics with outcomes.We have become, in all but name, unserious.And Heaven help us — because no one else will.James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development

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