Carney Notes That The People Who Blew Up Trade Talks Have Never Once Been On A Ballot
Prime Minister Mark Carney spent part of Thursday pointing out, with the enthusiasm of a man reading a bond prospectus aloud, that the American officials explaining why negotiations collapsed were never elected by anybody.
It is a fair observation and also a slightly awkward one, given that Canadians did not personally vote for the deputy ministers who drafted our counter-offer, the Bank of Canada governor who sets our rates, or the Senate, which contains 105 people appointed largely on the strength of having been useful once.
Still, the point lands. Somewhere in Washington, a trade adviser with no constituency, no phone number and a title that changes depending on which agency is answering, decided that the softwood file needed another eighteen months of contemplation. He has never knocked on a door. He has never stood in a Legion hall in Thunder Bay explaining why the mill closed. He has, however, produced a slide deck.
The Canadian counter-strategy remains what it has been since February: absorb the tariff, announce a support programme, look pained on camera, and quietly discover new customers in places that cannot be bothered to threaten us. Officials describe this as diversification. Exporters describe it as finding out how long a container takes to reach Rotterdam.
Carney's team says talks will resume when serious people return to the table.
The unelected officials, for their part, agree completely, and have circled a date. They just have not told anyone which year it is in.