I remember. The beautiful motto of Quebec should help us, on this side of the Atlantic, to remind us that two political revolutions are underway in North America. There is of course the Trump Circus, this extravagant Capernaum made of surprises and reversals, of which it is difficult to hold the daily chronicle. Besides this destructive circus of the American and global economy and stability, the other American political revolution, undoubtedly less spectacular and suicidal, but deeper and lasting, concerns Canada.
The election of Mark Carney as Prime Minister, this Catholic father, son of a teacher who grew up in a modest village in the Far North Canadian – peripheral Canada – which has become an exceptional governor of the Bank of England, made a decisive and happy turning point in a country towards which we should usefully operate a strategic rapprochement. First, Mark Carney won his election by applying the only line that is worth in front of Donald Trump: the hard line, without concessions against a man who presents Canada as the future 51st state of the United States, to buy with dollars or to take by force. A predator will never back up if he is not opposed to him: it is in his nature to devour the weak. This is how, in contrast, Mr. Trump continues to go back to China, Canada, and soon in front of Europe, which ended up understanding this paid resistance dynamic.
Then, the election of Mark Carney comes to put an end, finally, to the powerful Wokist drift that Canada had to undergo, particularly during the decade of Justin Trudeau, this heir in politics (son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau), an insatiable lessons who overwhelmed the Canadians with his catechism of the worst. That of the fight against an alleged “Anti-Palestinian racism”from the primacy given to an immigrationist policy, gender theory, ultra Minority, to the systematic guilty of white males that resemble it, etc. He announced the color during his election, saying that“There is no fundamental identity in Canada” but “Common values: openness, respect, compassion (…) These qualities make us the first postational state”. Missed.
Common interests
Large of its bad leaders, but under pressure from the aggressiveness of the United States (threats of annexation, customs prices), Canada is today at the crossroads. However, beyond a shared language and past, it appears spectacularly that Canada and France have a powerful and urgent common interest in making a major strategic rapprochement. While waiting for a broader rapprochement between Europe and this very large country – the second largest in the world behind Russia.
The economic identity cards of our two countries are incredibly close. We have more or less the same challenges: unemployment rates up around 7 %; debt ratios on GDP at 110-113 %; a debt per capita around 50,000 euros; excessive public spending. We have similar assets: significant investments in defense (more than 3 % of GDP) and exactly the same level of health expenditure per capita (3,900 euros per year). We share world leadership positions in the same major industries in the 21st century (defense, finance, agrifood in particular).
Canada and France, together, constitute the third world economic power
We differ strongly in the following areas: we have natural Epsilonesque resources when this immense country is full of minerals, forests, water, gas and hydrocarbons (one tenth of the world’s proven oil reserves). Their public expenditure is strong but controlled (44 % of GDP, against 57 % for us), in particular thanks to spectacular and repeated administration reform programs (possibility of making conventional ruptures with civil servants; deployment of digital tools to rethink the tasks of the state in depth). On the other hand, Canada has a lesser culture and lower investments in innovation than France – not to mention nuclear.
Mourn the United States
The time has come – ideally today, at the latest in 2027 – to initiate a major transatlantic rapprochement between our two nations, confronted with the same challenges (Trump’s America), with the same opponents (“neighboring” Russia by the Far North), and having particularly complementary assets. Companies of the same industries can start exploring rapprochements (we think in particular of Defense), on the condition that the French State does not get involved for a second! We remember the imbecile veto inflicted in February 2021 on the operation planned in the large distribution sector, between A-Talt and Carrefour, however so obvious and in the interest of the French (have we already seen large areas relocating?) As of this group.
However, it is in the fields of transatlantic commerce and in the sovereign that the French state can promote intelligent initiatives and partnerships. Duplicate with Canada defense and security agreements (Lancaster House) signed with Great Britain in 2010. Climbing the European Union and Denmark, sovereign authority of Greenland, operations or even common military bases to ensure the security of this neighboring country of Canada, so strategic and so coveted (by the Russians, the Chinese, and the Hubris of Donald Trump). Our alpine hunters know how to do it. Promote, when the United States wants to kill trade and global growth via its prices, the conditions for a free trade area between Canada and France, and beyond between American countries, excluding the United States, and European countries.
As long as Donald Trump and his delayed are in power in the United States, we must mourn a fruitful commercial, sovereign and strategic relationship with this former ally. And on the contrary, multiply the rapprochements with the countries of which we are closest by culture, geography, history and language. Obviously, rid of the tin of wokism, Canada by Mark Carney, with which we have five centuries of common history from Jacques Cartier, is one of them. In our turn to tell them “I remember”in order to build together the major transatlantic relationship of the 21st century.
