Are We All LARPing?

Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) made a big splash yesterday. The elbows up crowd had their elbows so far up they practically began flying. I listened to the whole speech twice. Not because it was the best speech I had ever heard but because much of it was reminiscent of someone’s Linked In profile or the weird HR lady doing a presentation on cultural strengths at the wokest workplace. Jargon that sounds profound but when you slow the sound track down and actually listen, not simply hear, you wonder how lofty ideals, like “calibrating our relationships so their depth reflects our values” are instituted in real life.

Of course, if you do listen carefully, and also dig into the substance of Carney’s speech you realise that the lofty goals of decarbonising and net zero went out the window when economic crises loomed. Which, with the exception of everyone who has spent the last decade LARPing as a climate advocate while flying around the world, knew they would. The carbon tax, at least for households, was the first thing Carney removed. Next came boosts to mining, oil and gas production. In Carney’s own words: “We are fast-tracking $1 trillion of investments in energy, AI, critical minerals, new trade corridors and beyond.” Fast tracking, of course, is code for we have reduced environmental protections that cover resource extraction industries.

Canada is in a tough spot. The USA, which has always loomed over the country as an elephant towers over a mouse, is extremely reliant on trade with the USA. And, it’s not all one way, Canada imports 30% of its food and this is not all processed junk food which any country can actually thrive without, it includes fruits, vegetables and even meat. Almost 50% of Canada’s fresh produce is imported.

There is no doubt that Canada needs a new way forward, and Carney could be the man to orchestrate that. All this stuff is way outside my pay grade. I found being President of a recreational club challenging so I cannot imagine the pressures that the Prime Minister of Canada must feel as he seeks to realign an entire country's economy whilst trying to maintain the high standard of living that Canadian’s have come to expect.

Canada’s strength, Carney propounds is “a recognition of what’s happening and determination to act accordingly.” It is an “honesty about the world as it is” and “the capacity to stop pretending, to name realities.” This is the only way forward because no problem has ever been solved by obfuscation, and certainly Canada needs some truth and honesty about the issues it faces. The only problem is, are Canadian’s ready for truth and honesty?

The entire country is still in the grip of one of the greatest controversies of its entire history: the residential school affair, which has cost the country upwards of $40 billion despite the fact that no human remains have ever been found. And, of course, there was the illegal freezing of bank accounts during the trucker convoy in February 2022 when Canada’s government (under Trudeau) acted against its own citizens. In 2024, Canada’s publicly funded health program was forced to pay for a man to have a fake vagina created while keeping his own penis. The case was won because Ontario signed up to the WPATH guidelines (an interesting story by itself), and, Canada continues to house “trans” women (even those guilty of violent crimes) in women’s prisons. In fact, we can thank Canada for exporting to the world, entirely new categories of gender. Carney’s speech was both inspirational and aspirational but it remains to be seen whether the Canadian public is actually ready to grapple with reality or whether the entire enterprise is simply the placing of a different sign in the window.