Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Axworthy

Mark Carney has flipped the plan on how to protect Canada and here is why I’m concerned

On Thursday, the Carney government released a paper outlining its security policy framework, a long-awaited exposition of its view on how to protect Canadians in this troubled world. It needs to be carefully considered by Canadians, as it portrays a country very different from the internationalist-minded, human-rights-conscious, effective diplomatic participant that Canada has been for countless decades; a country that...

Lloyd Axworthy

Mark Carney is right that Canada must change. But there’s a key thing he needs to do first

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has a “very clear mandate” from the April 2025 election. Reinforced by floor crossings and byelection victories, Carney’s majority gives his government the right to pass the Building Canada Strong Act, a sweeping 246-page bill dealing with major projects, environmental assessments and federal labour law. It’s true that we need new ports, rail corridors...

Lloyd Axworthy

Canadians can see only scattered pieces of a national strategy. Carney needs to explain how they fit together

Eighteen months into Mark Carney’s government, Canadians can see elements of a foreign and defence policy scattered like puzzle pieces across a table — but no one has shown us the box with the picture illustrating what the pieces assemble into. On Sept. 17, Carney will add another piece to the pile: an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg...

Lloyd Axworthy

I’m a former foreign minister. This is how Canada can disentangle itself from the U.S.

Canada has reached a historical crossroads. What our prime minister rightly labels an attack on our sovereignty through predatory U.S. tariffs is no mere trade dispute. It is a stark revelation: we share a border with an administration governed by a predatory regime whose goals are fundamentally hostile to Canadian independence. For too long, Canada has sleepwalked into a deep...

Lloyd Axworthy, Michael W. Manulak

Even as Canada spends more than ever on our military, this one proud tradition is dying. That’s a mistake

On July 17, the Department of National Defence announced that Canada would end or reduce its military participation in five long-standing international peace operations in Kosovo, Cyprus, South Sudan, the Sinai and the Democratic Republic of Congo, redirecting approximately 50 to 60 personnel to “higher-impact priorities.” Phased in through mid-2027, these changes do not constitute a dramatic rupture. They are...

Lloyd Axworthy

Canada’s silence on the U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s nuclear agreement isn’t neutrality. It’s something much worse

Canada’s nuclear story has always been one of choice. In 1946, with Hiroshima still smouldering, Canada could have become a nuclear weapons state. It possessed the uranium, the scientific expertise, the industrial base, and the Manhattan Project experience that would have made it possible. The St Laurent government chose differently, pushing for international control of nuclear arms while directing Canadian...

Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock

Canada needs to stand against Marco Rubio’s latest crusade — even if it costs us

This week, the world marks International Justice Day and the 28th anniversary of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court. All these years later, it remains among the most consequential efforts ever made to hold war criminals accountable. Now Washington has announced its intention to “dismantle the ICC brick by brick, if necessary.”

Lloyd Axworthy

Mark Carney’s visit to Saudi Arabia revealed a narrowed vision of Canada’s place in the world

“O Canada” was played in Saudi Arabia this week for the first time in 26 years. That quarter-century silence tells the real story behind Mark Carney’s visit to Jeddah. The last Canadian prime minister to visit Saudi Arabia was Jean Chrétien, in 2000, during a 12-day Middle East tour driven by a very different ambition: to reinforce Canada’s role as...

Lloyd Axworthy

Ukraine has exposed a Russian weakness. It’s up to NATO to fully exploit it

As NATO leaders gather in Ankara, Turkey, this week, much of the attention will inevitably be focusing on U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest complaints about burden-sharing and American leadership. That’s understandable. But, if the summit becomes consumed by familiar political theatrics, it will miss a far more important strategic opportunity. Ukraine has exposed a vulnerability in Russia’s war economy that...

Lloyd Axworthy

This one agreement with the U.S. is a betrayal of Canada’s values

When Canada signed the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States in 2002, the bargain rested on one assumption: that the U.S. offers a fair, humane process to people fleeing persecution. That assumption is no longer true, and this week the U.S. Supreme Court made it official. In two rulings on June 25, the Court sided with the Trump...

Lloyd Axworthy

At a pivotal juncture, this ceremony represented a moment of hope for Canada

There are times when you feel the ground shift because something genuinely historic is underway. That was my reaction Monday morning watching Louise Arbour installed as Canada’s 31st Governor General. It was a defining, quintessentially Canadian experience, not just for the pageantry, the 21-gun salute, or the high ceremony of passing the torch. What made it remarkable was the passage...

Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock

Canada’s military renewal ought to be about more than just guns, ships and jets

Canada is embarking on its largest military buildup in generations. The government has committed to NATO’s new defence target, which will dramatically increase spending on military capabilities and defence-related infrastructure over the next decade. A dangerous world requires credible defence. But military spending alone will not make Canada safer, more influential, or more respected internationally.

Lloyd Axworthy

Carney has two energy strategies — and there’s not enough room for both

The first international conference devoted to moving the world off of oil, gas and coal closed last week in Santa Marta, Colombia, where more than 50 nations agreed to hold a follow-up summit and strike a new global panel to draft a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. It was co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, both middle powers, working...

Lloyd Axworthy

Carney’s Liberals Are Governing like Conservatives—Just More Politely

FOR ALL OF MY adult life, I’ve been a Liberal believing in the defence of rights, the constraining of power, an equitable society, and an independent foreign policy. It’s been a narrative that many Canadians have strongly believed and supported.

Lloyd Axworthy

Canada is slowly getting pulled into Trump’s incoherent mid-east conflict. This is the role we should play

Every March, millions of fans set aside their better judgment and give themselves over to the chaos of a basketball tournament aptly called March Madness. Its charm is simple. Anything can happen. Underdogs from small colleges sometimes topple the giants. We watch, we wince, we marvel. This year, the madness has spilled beyond the court into far more dangerous territory...

Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock

An international norm is being questioned after Trump’s Iran strikes. As two of the officials who helped established it, we’d like to set the record straight

This past week, a New York Times columnist argued that a Canadian-led change to norms of international governance called Responsibility to Protect was now a “weak spot” that risks being exploited by today’s aggressors. The Responsibility to Protect was described by historian Martin Gilbert as “the most significant adjustment to sovereignty in 360 years.” It holds that when a government...

Lloyd Axworthy

Canadians deserve to know if our military is helping the U.S. attack on Iran

Canadian Forces exchange officers working with the U.S. military were “very likely” involved at some level in planning the weekend strikes on Iran, a former Canada major-general has warned. If true, this should raise alarm bells for Canadians because it means Ottawa’s insistence that Canada is “not involved” in this operation is not just implausible, it’s misleading.

Lloyd Axworthy

Canada once rejected America’s aggressive, unlawful foreign policy. Today Mark Carney embraced it

Canada’s response to the U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran exposes a fault line at the heart of our foreign policy. We invoke international law and the “rules based international order” when adversaries engage in unlawful actions, but abandon those same rules entirely when it’s the Americans — whose current government 60 per cent of Canadians now see as a threat —...

Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock

Why are Canadian arms fuelling foreign conflicts?

Canadians take pride in our country’s role as a principled voice for international law, arms control and responsible multilateralism. In 2019, when Canada acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), there was strong public support for our government’s pledge that Canadian arms exports would never contribute to human-rights abuses.

Lloyd Axworthy

Is there still a place in the world for the Nobel Peace Prize?

When Alfred Nobel drafted his will in 1895, he gave his Peace Prize a deceptively simple mandate: to honour those who had done the most to advance fraternity among nations, reduce standing armies, and promote peace through co-operation and dialogue. Nobel was no romantic: He was an industrialist who invented dynamite and amassed a fortune from armaments, and he understood...

Lloyd Axworthy

Selective Sovereignty and Autocratic Aggression: It’s Time for a New Arctic Bargain

I remember clearly a conversation in Luleå — known as the gateway to Swedish Lapland — with then U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, as we negotiated the founding bargain of the Arctic Council. It was the mid-1990s, and Canada was shepherding the Council into being via the 1996 Ottawa Declaration. The critical issue was whether to include national...

Lloyd Axworthy

After six months of Mark Carney, Canadians are growing impatient. Can you blame them?

Mark Carney won the federal election in April by building a coalition of Canadians who don’t normally vote the same way but were united by one overriding fear: the destabilizing threat of U.S. President Donald Trump. “Elbows up” was the rallying cry: the phrase, borrowed from hockey legend Gordie Howe, once described muscling into corners but became a way for...

Lloyd Axworthy

Mark Carney must not allow Canada to be a mere spectator in the Middle East

In a world distracted by the dipsy-doodle diplomacy of U.S. President Donald Trump, it’s all too easy to dismiss Canada as a passive spectator in the long and troubled saga of the Middle East. But history tells a different story, one marked by bold diplomacy, principled independence and quiet but consequential leadership. Today, as the region edges toward wider conflict...

Lloyd Axworthy, Ratna Omidvar, Victor Lal, Warda Shazadi Meighen

A Day to Reflect, Not Celebrate: Canada’s Refugee Commitment at a Crossroads

On this World Refugee Day, Friday June 20th, celebration feels out of place. Across the globe, the refugee protection system is stretched to its breaking point, while the number of displaced persons grows each day. Long viewed as a haven, Canada is not immune to the global tide of toughened border controls and political pressure. We should, of course, begin...

Lloyd Axworthy

Canada should firmly reject Trump’s ludicrous Golden Dome plan

You have to be kidding – Canada considering involvement in Donald Trump‘s Golden Dome space defence initiative? Is this for real? Is Canada seriously contemplating joining Mr. Trump’s latest cockamamie idea? After winning an election on a clear promise to assert a more independent foreign and defence policy – including a move away from reliance on U.S. weaponry, military strategy...

Lloyd Axworthy

I am a former minister of foreign affairs. This is what’s at stake in the tension between India and Pakistan

The conflict between India and Pakistan is not a sudden wildfire — it is a bed of long-burning embers, lying beneath decades of unresolved history, territorial disputes, mutual distrust, and a clash of national religious identities. From time to time, a gust of wind — a political provocation, a militant attack, or a deadly border clash — fans them back...

Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock

We’ve worked with Liberal PMs going back to Pierre Trudeau. Here’s why Chrystia Freeland should be next

When Liberals vote on March 9, they will be selecting not only their party’s leader but also the next Prime Minister of Canada. We have had the privilege of working with Liberal prime ministers going back to Pierre Trudeau and have seen first-hand the nature and number of demands made on the person who holds that office, as well as...

Lloyd Axworthy, Michael W. Manulak, Allan Rock

The Time Has Come for Canada to Hit Back

With each successive provocation, it is becoming clear that President Donald Trump’s fixation with Canada is more than a negotiating ploy. Whether or not Trump seeks to revisit 19th century thinking about America’s “manifest destiny,” his comments threaten Canadian sovereignty. His demeaning treatment of Canada and its prime minister — from his coercive threat of 25% tariffs to his mendacity...

Lloyd Axworthy

Justin Trudeau has infantilized his ministers. They need more power for our government to work

In the 1970s, Richard Crossman, a minister in Harold Wilson’s UK government, published a set of diaries outlining the code of ministerial duties in a parliamentary system. Ministers, Crossman explained, were the essential link between the executive and legislative functions of government. They exercised decision-making power while being accountable to Parliament. This power required a degree of independent discretion, and...