I’ve got whiplash from the speed of this government’s shifting allegiances.Canada’s 45th Parliament opened May 26, 2025. The next day, King Charles III delivered the Speech from the Throne. Prime Minister Mark Carney had invited him, hoping the symbolism would rekindle a sense of unity. A patriotic gesture, Carney hoped it might blunt the growing separatist sentiment in Western Canada.It didn’t work. But it made for a good photo op.Then within days, Carney undercut the whole thing. Speaking in Europe, he called Canada “the most European of non-European countries.”.It was a slap in the face to the King — and a telling slip from a prime minister who would clearly rather be Brussels-adjacent than Crown-loyal. He may not even understand that the UK has traditionally kept its distance from Europe — and is no longer part of the EU. The remark was not historical analysis. It was a wish.That wish became clearer when Canada signed onto the EU’s “ReArm Europe” initiative. This isn’t about military procurement. It’s a membership fee. It signals the beginning of an EU+ arrangement for Canada — a one-way slide into the orbit of a failing European superstate..But what does it even mean to be “European”?Do the Spanish and Poles share a national identity? Are the Swedes and Greeks interchangeable? Europe is a geographic term. Calling it a cultural one is lazy. Enlightenment values are shared by the U.S., Israel, and Japan — none of which are European. If “European” means political system, Canada, like Australia and India, inherited its institutions from Westminster.In fact, Carney’s own rise to power was anything but European. After Justin Trudeau resigned, Carney took office without an election and quickly scrapped the carbon tax by decree — executive action that looked more like Washington than Brussels.Carney is hard to pin down. British-born. Europe-minded. A former governor of the Bank of England. A citizen of the world, maybe. But hardly a man of Canada..When I was a boy in the 1950s, public schools taught our British heritage proudly. Historian David Starkey once called Canada the “eldest daughter of empire.” But under Trudeau, Canada lost that sense of self. Trudeau even said we had “no core identity.”Apparently, that means we can now be anything. One day, loyal to the Crown. The next, a Brussels satellite. Just like our prime minister: sometimes British, sometimes European, sometimes American — but never really Canadian.If Carney was trying to stem Western alienation, he’s only poured fuel on the fire. The West wants out not because it hates Canada — but because it’s being pushed out. Ottawa’s heavy hand is already intolerable. Imagine how much worse it would be if those bureaucrats were taking orders from unelected technocrats in Brussels.What would that look like? Think Germany: farmer revolts, economic stagnation, and smothering environmental rules imposed from above. That’s the Europe Carney seems eager to emulate. And that’s the Canada he’s pushing on the West.In truth, the West isn’t leaving Canada. Canada has already left the West.Dr. A.W. Barber is the former director of Asian Studies at the University of Calgary. He is internationally active and has wide-ranging interests.
