A Formidable Technocrat and Chaotic Graft
May 29, AD 2026 Friday Flashpoint: not quite Canada versus the USA.
Welcome to Friday Flashpoint where I analyze and expose important historical and social developments impacting America’s place in the world.
On this day, May 29, 1453, the Christian Emperor Constantine XI, son of the Emperor Manuel II of House Palaiologos, fell in defense of the Empire of the Romans. The invading forces of the Sunni Islamic Turkish Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman dynasty sacked Constantinople, now known as Istanbul.
Thus ended the history of the lineal Roman state that had survived in republican and imperial forms since 509 B.C.
A North American Dilemma, Data > Vibes
The United States and Canada have been linked since the first foundations of Jamestown in 1607 to the English adventurers of Cuper's Cove, Renews, and Bristol's Hope, and Scotland’s settling of Nova Scotia. The societies developed in tandem and in competition, sometimes friendly, often not, and until the Cold War focused Americans on global concerns, Canada was understood to be a critical relationship by Americans. That is no longer the case. Having taken it for granted that the United States could bully Canada, a mistake not made since 1815, the Americans have ruptured a relationship with little gain to show for it.
The Canadians however have almost accidentally wound up with a democratically elected technocratic government that values data over social media vibes.
Yesterday, the Canadian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, Mark Joseph Carney, delivered a concise presentation of his strategic plan to the Economic Club of New York.12 The Economic Club of New York is where power goes to be heard. It is where American and global leaders take the stage before the people who actually move markets, making their case in the one room where a well-placed word can move billions in capital. You go there to sell them on your vision.
First some data of my own to add to the conversation: approximately 18% of humanity speak English conversationally as a first or second language and an additional 5% speak French.
Carney’s vision is to make a bi-national Canada the new land of opportunity for a world whose aspirational youth and top minds are typically educated in English and/or French. A Canada viable not only economically, but also one capable of defending itself just as Ukraine has proved against Russia, and indirectly competing with the mother countries of Great Britain and France. However, Canada is being presented as the only logical destination for capital and brains interested in North America. Carney’s few words stood out and Americans should consider them with seriousness:
Carney did not arrive at the Economic Club to reminisce. He arrived with a diagnosis:
Today, the world is undergoing a rupture. Led by the United States, technological change is accelerating. The U.S. is transforming all its commercial relationships. The world is becoming more divided and dangerous. Canada recognized these developments earlier than most, and our response reflects the core lesson we have taken from these tectonic shifts: We have to take care of ourselves and be true to ourselves.
His diagnosis was followed by a data-backed prescription:
We have introduced a Productivity Super-Deduction giving Canada the most competitive tax rate for new investment in the G7 – half the G7 average, and four percentage points below the United States.
His language went to the financial heart of the issues:
We are catalyzing one trillion dollars of investment in Canada over the next five years – in energy, transportation, data, and defense.
When the United States said it wanted assertive allies, it should have been more circumspect. People do not like to be pushed around, and smaller powers with a sense of identity can decide to assert themselves against you. That is what Canada is doing.
Then came the passage that should concern every serious person in Washington: how Canada now positions the GE Hitachi BWRX-300
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