Hats off to those who told the “blunt truth” that Carney chaired a G7 meeting utterly devoid of meaning
Nothing quite illustrated the demise of the West like Trump’s touch and go landing in Kananaskis. Some commentators saw through the stagecraft
Gee, Andrew Coyne just hit the proverbial nail on its protruding head with his Globe and Mail column on last week’s G7 meeting in Alberta.
In recent years, the Oracle of Central Canadian Elite Received Opinion has seemed, to coin another cliché, off his game from the days when he was among the few reliably contrarian voices in Canadian journalism.
Gone was the pith that made me a #1 Andrew Coyne Fanboy. In its place too often was the predictable group think commentary sections of so much of our media. Relentlessly humourless in its frivolousness, it occasionally produced howlers. One was his rhetorical question posed in a column during the federal election as to whether Canadians boarding a plane would prefer the pilot have multiple years of flying experience or be some guy in a back row holding an economy fare ticket.
Of course, the arse was out her, analogy-wise. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had 20 years of experience in Parliamentary government and opposition. Sneakily selected Liberal leader Mark Carney who showed up without having spent a day on the job in the House of Commons but demanded to have his ticket as an economist punched anyway.
But all was on the table of forgiveness when Coyne reverted to good old Andrew form by stating a blunt truth that would never have otherwise been allowed to escape the whisper thickets of Canadian commentary.
The G7, Coyne wrote, has got to go – with a capital G.
“The summit of the Group of Seven is over, but really it was over long before its official ending. It was over before Donald Trump walked out part way through. If you want to know the truth, it was over before it began,” he began.
“(Trump) left ostensibly because he had pressing business to attend to re Iran. More likely he was just bored by the sheer pointlessness of it all. I can’t say I blame him,” he concluded.
It turns out that Trump did indeed have pressing matters beckoning but by Canadian journalism’s uber-repressed standards, Coyne calling out the embarrassing flop of a “global” event hosted by a Liberal Prime Minister was like shouting out that the King of Canada passed gas at a Royal banquet and the air hung heavy with the perfume of brocolis à la vapeur sauce aux moutard. Simply not done, don’t you know, old chap?
Except Coyne did. I can’t say I blame him. Au contraire. I praise him.
It’s the kind of robust truth-telling thriving journalism cultures nourish and thereby flourish within. Writing in Britain’s The Telegraph, Daniel Johnson asserted that the Canadian cock-up in Kananaskis signaled nothing less than “the demise of European power.” Complementing Coyne, Johnson, too, noted the two-day gathering of international leaders was “over before it started” because the American president bailed after dinner on Day One.
“Blink and you miss it,” he wrote.
His principal point was that no one on the international scene will truly miss these hyperinflated gatherings of the good and the great because at least six of the leaders are no longer good for much anymore, nor worth a great deal of anyone’s attention span.
“A huge shift of economic, political and military power away from Europe to other continents has left the G7 looking like a convocation of imposters, masquerading as statesmen. European politicians have lived for too long in a fantasy world of which these annual summits are the window dressing,” Johnson wrote.
If Euro pols need to be snapped out of their fantasies, what about the Canadian politico-media axis that swaddles and coddles the populace as if we are children needing protection from truths too harsh for us to absorb?
Whenever Canadian leaders shuffle onto the international stage, the media chorus breaks into “How Great We Art.” When, as in last week’s case, we’re actually the host site for a given gabfest, it’s a cue to break out the cheerleader pom-poms and warm up for the back flips: “See? See? We really do count!”
Except we don’t. It’s a sad truth. It is still the truth. In undergraduate political science courses, I heard Canada called an “honest broker” in international affairs. Later, we became the news story add on of “…and Canada also agreed.” By the millennium, we were insufferably smug fools who didn’t know their place at the diplomatic table. Then came Justin Trudeau and the cringe-making tomfoolery that earned us international contempt and, worse, pity.
It's easy, in the aftermath, to entirely blame the Boy Buffoon for our collapse into global village idiots. But a robust journalistic enterprise would now be busy reminding Canadians: “You re-elected him. Three freaking times!” Which we did. And we handed a fourth government to his hand-picked successor in a nutter perversion of Parliamentary process.
Whether or not Mark Carney concludes his time in office as a great Canadian prime minister (I think it’s entirely possible), the Party rigged handover of power was so brazen it needed only a Soviet-style reviewing stand to complete the tableau. As Andrew Coyne might put it, we could have at least had the vestigial national pride to, à la Trump at Kananaskis, signal our boredom with the pointlessness of it all.
If only Coyne and other mainstream journalists would give consistent journalistic voice to that vitally-needed sentiment. Instead, they helped lead the truly humiliating charade of the ludicrous “Elbows Up” mantra during the spring election. They lent credence to the nonsense that, as prime minister, Carney would “stand up” to Donald Trump. As my Rewrite colleague Anna Farrow wrote last week, they even nodded and grinned as Carney spun the preposterous whopper about rebuilding the Canadian military.
The idea we’ll ever again defend our own borders with full reliance on our American neighbours is beyond magical thinking. It’s delusional to the point of believing hitting ourselves in the head will eventually make the headache go away so long as we keep using the same old hammer.
The primary job of journalists is to say it isn’t so. That’s why it was so refreshing to read Andrew Coyne doing exactly that. Don’t stop, Andrew. Don’t stop.
(Peter Stockland is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Montreal Gazette)
I was once quite a fan of Coyne's writing, but in the past ten years (and especially the last five), his commentary and just general thinking has become increasingly irrational and emotional. I fear there is something wrong with his mental and/or physical health.
Often arrogance and pride hide the decline and poor society one inhabits.
One only has to visit places in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe to see how far Canada is falling in terms of public manners, public transportation and just getting things done.
When Canada mattered we were humble and listened. Justin Trudeau just mirrored a country that thinks it is the hottest chick/dude on the block, but in reality needs to hit the gym and stop taking the meds.
Love my country but after living in South Korea for 15 years and currently in Taiwan for a trip I see where my homeland is failing.