Just four months into his leadership, critics say Prime Minister Mark Carney has already shown far too much “weakness” by capitulating to U.S. President Donald Trump on a number of fronts.

This week, author and columnist Linda McQuaig was Adrian Harewood’s guest on the Ricochet podcast In Bed with the Elephant. She said that under Carney, there’s been “a disappointing shift to the right.” 

“Mark Carney has come out much more conservative and leaning to the right than we saw during the election, and so far I’m very disturbed by some of those tendencies,” she said. 

McQuaig, whose most recent book is The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth, has sharp criticism of Carney’s backtrack on the Digital Services Tax.

Canada was poised to impose a new levy on major American tech companies operating in the Canadian market — like Meta, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and Google parent Alphabet — until the Liberals caved to Trump, scrapping the tax that was expected to generate $7 billion in revenue over the next five years. It was supposed to come into effect on June 30.

“It was a vital tax,” she said. “Otherwise we have no way to tax these big tech companies. They are consuming so much of the advertising market in our country, making it difficult for media to compete with them, and yet they escape taxation because they are located outside the country… It just showed such weakness.”

Canada’s corporate leaders, however, are thrilled by Carney’s report card so far, she said.

“I think it’s outrageous that the business community wants all this military spending, but they want ordinary people to pay for it, not business or the rich.”

McQuaig says she would rather see Carney invest in national projects that benefit Canadians — but that would involve a commitment to tax the wealthiest Canadians much more than they are currently.

Canada may not have as many billionaires as the U.S., she said, but there are many “fabulously wealthy people at the top.”

Carney has announced that he wants Canada to spend an additional $9 billion on defence by April, and has promised NATO allies that Canada will meet a new defence-spending target of five per cent GDP by 2035.

Liberal cabinet ministers have been told to find up to 15 per cent in financial savings in advance of this fall’s budget, with the plan to reinvest that money into housing, defence, and infrastructure. But critics argue that Carney’s proposal is nothing more than a new austerity plan and that the Liberal cuts will lead to the elimination of numerous lifesaving government programs and services, the loss of tens of thousands of public sector jobs, and a rise in social inequality.

McQuaig calls it a betrayal to the voters who supported Carney in the federal election and trusted him to defend progressive values.

“That’s one of the biggest stories that never gets the attention it deserves, is the extent to which inequality is increasing in this country,” she said. “And all the money in recent years, particularly since the pandemic, increasingly is going to the very top. We need to tax the wealthy… a wealth tax could raise billions of dollars.”

Military spending, McQuaig says, “will consume all the money over the next 10 years.” 

During the election, Carney won on promises of an “elbows up” defence of Canadian sovereignty. The country was facing a number of new crises — a looming trade war and a newly elected president Donald Trump musing about annexation. Carney was elected on a promise to stand up to those threats and to defend Canadian sovereignty and values. 

McQuaig is critical of Carney’s strategy, and is alarmed by the suggestion that he plans to defend the Canadian border against the U.S. military.

“We will never win,” she said. “The U.S. is the biggest and most powerful military in the world. Plus, armed with nuclear weapons. If it comes to a U.S. invasion, no amount of military spending on our part is going to defend us from that.”

Instead, McQuaig would have preferred to see Carney invest in expanding trade with Europe, reaffirm commitment to take action on climate change, and invest in services and programs that benefit Canadians.

“We should be using our voice within NATO to argue for less military spending,” she said. “The answer is more international diplomacy, more cooperation, more understanding.”

Canada’s most urgent problems will not be solved by investing in the military, she said. Solutions to the housing crisis, cost of living, food insecurity, and the erosion of health and long-term care are more likely to be found through increased public investment.

“We should get back into public enterprise in this country, and by that I mean publicly owned by the people — institutions and programs and companies that can provide things for Canadians. We used to have Connaught Labs. It was publicly owned and a major manufacturer of drugs and vaccines… It was responsible for Banting and Best’s discovery of insulin.”

In her book, McQuaig argues that Canada was built by massive public investment in building railways, housing projects, energy, medicare, and public spaces — but that that’s changed over the past 25 years, as governments have been on a privatization crusade. 

“If we want to strengthen Canada, let’s get back to doing things like that, and that could really make a difference and pull the country together and give it a sense of pride.”

Carney would point to his Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, legislation to fast-track resource projects, which aims to break down interprovincial trade and employment barriers, saying that new major projects will bring about national unity. 

It passed into law this summer despite significant Indigenous pushback. Many First Nations communities have vowed to resist projects with actions and blockades on the land.

McQuaig says that removing regulations at the request of business leaders is simply the wrong move. “I’m concerned about all this fast-tracking of projects if it is going to compromise aspects of our democracy that are important, such as consultation with Indigenous people, giving them a fair voice, and various climate and environmental considerations.

“Preserving our democratic process is more important than any megaproject,” she said.

On the genocide in Gaza, McQuaig said Carney also falls short.

“I do think it’s good that he has come out and said Canada will recognize a Palestinian state. I think that’s a very important development.” However, she’s disappointed that the Carney government has not been stronger in its denunciation of what Israel is doing in Gaza.

McQuaig went further and said Canada should assist the International Criminal Court (ICC) in apprehending Benjamin Netanyahu and placing him under arrest. “If he comes onto our soil, we should cooperate with the ICC… our obligation to the international community is to uphold international law.”

And if that offends Donald Trump? “So be it.”

Listen to the full episode of In Bed with the Elephant on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.