The Carney Trump Alliance

The Carney Trump Alliance 

"While the world races towards cheaper renewable energy, Canada continues to double down on oil and gas, leaving Canadians vulnerable to geopolitical and economic volatility," wrote Aly Hyder Ali, oil and gas senior program manager at Environmental Defence, in response to the report. 

Scott says that in terms of energy, the global situation is very competitive, thanks to China's tremendous investment in becoming a leader in electrification. Meanwhile, the U.S. under Trump "is working on behalf of the fossil fuel industry to try and slow that transition down." 

"One is on the losing side of the transition and one is on the winning side, and [Canada has] decided we're going to invest in the losing side — intentionally," said Scott. "It's just mind-boggling."

-       Carney talks about Canada's 'energy sovereignty.' But what does that really mean?  CBC

By Gregg Wall (7-25-2026)

Do Carney and Trump have some special relationship we should all know about?   Well into the second year of both men’s present term in office certain patterns are beginning to emerge.  Coincidence or is something else going on?  For starters, Trump has openly bragged about getting Carney elected…repeated threats of annexation destroyed Poilievre’s massive lead and helped Carney win the election immeasurably.  Once in office, Trump has openly fawned over Carney, noting that Mark could be mean and ruthless and someone who could go to work for the Trump family.  Given Trump’s rumored health problems and cognitive decline could Trump’s Carney remarks be the cognitive decline talking, Trump buttering up Carney, just the facts, or all the above.  

Naturally, Carney rejected Trump’s advances in terms of annexation, ran on being a tough negotiator, and one to bring a renewed trade agreement over the finish line.  But when we look at PM Carney’s behavior and actions once in office a whole new pattern of behavior emerges, one that a rational President Trump couldn’t possibly be more pleased with.  Let’s run this down:

 

Ideological soul mates:  When it comes to business matters and economy the two are virtually identical.  Trump had several high-profile Goldman Sachs alums in his cabinet during his first term.  Carney, of course, started at Goldman Sachs.  Trump also appreciates the private equity industry and its ruthlessness. Many high profile donors to POTUS Trump are private equity billionaires.  Carney’s last job was chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, a private equity company.   Trump loves easy money policies from the Federal Reserve, which juices the stock market and asset classes of the wealthy; Carney actually was the central bank leader for both the BOC and BOE, firmly embraced easy money, and continues to advocate for monetary policy that is kind to financialization, private equity, and venture capital.  Both men, Carney and Trump, champion the merger between the private and public sector… a big NO for old school libertarians and even somewhat at odds with traditional neoliberalism. And for all intents & purposes, both embrace forms of centralized industrial policy.  In term of economic policy, they could be supply-side, trickle-down twins.

 

Carney’s Trade Actions:  Unlike the tough negotiator Canadians were led to believe Carney would be, the PM has bent over backwards to placate Trump.  Backing down on counter tariffs, taxes on US tech firms, and engaging in ultra-accommodating and semi-unctuous behavior towards Trump.  This, even though Canada holds at least two key cards against the Americans:  1) The U.S. is hugely dependent upon Canadian oil and potash; 2) sans O&G, America runs a trade surplus with Canada.  Moreover, Trump’s often repeated argument that Canada and the EU are laggards on military spending… and America pays their way on the military… simply doesn’t hold up.  Here, consider Canada and the EU are all jacking up their arms spending, but instead of Americans enjoying a peace dividend, Trump is full steam ahead with a proposed $1.5 trillion war budget.  In other words, no matter how much allies and NATO partners spend, Trump, Dems, and GOP are still going to spend obscene sums on war and the deep state with no letup in sight (and to the complete detriment of the American people).  All of this, arguably, particularly Carney’s ingratiating behavior (and no enthusiasm for playing Canada's strongest cards), seems to have emboldened Trump and his worst instincts & impulses at the worst possible time, when Trump is desperately looking for a win.  Note, Chrystia Freeland had no such difficulties, successfully negotiated a trade agreement with America and Mexico that Trump, at signing, was very effusive about.  It wasn’t until Trump’s second term that Trump began trash talking Canada, the USMCA, and Freedland, most likely because Trump feared Freeland’s effectiveness?

 

Carney’s legislative achievements:  From rolling back Trudeau’s proposed minor capital gains tax increase to Bill C-5, now the law of the land (which essentially trashed charter rights, labor protections, ran roughshod over indigenous rights, advanced deregulation in the extreme, and set up a race to the bottom among provinces) … Carney has been the American and Canadian CEOs dream.  As for the Canadian Cons and Pierre, they merely serve as ankle-biters: jealous of Carney’s conservative achievements, acknowledging Carney ripped off their far-right economic agenda, but continuously complaining about Carney’s corporate, neoliberal achievements by demanding more: more tax cuts, more deregulation, more gutting of social programs and public healthcare, more austerity for the people.  Canadian Cons, due to their growing MAGA credentials and pandering to the populist right, also serve to keep the left-leaning, liberal, and progressive voters closely aligned with Carney.  Even though left leaning and progressive voters couldn’t be more divergent on economic and foreign policy with the Carney government …  no few Canadians see Carney as headed the wrong way on the economy and economic policy (but are terrified of what Pierre, radical MAGA separatists will do on social policy and public healthcare).  Therefore, as if allied with Liberals, Trump and Pierre serve to keep Canadian voters and progressives tied to far-right Carney and his far-right corpocracy, technocratic agenda.  A negative partnership if there ever was one: equal parts good cop, bad cop, fear factor?  The solution to this problem is to codify abortion, bodily autonomy, LGBTQ rights, an economic bill of rights, further strengthen freedom of speech & the right to protest, codify affordable housing, and public healthcare within the Charter rights, so as to force all political parties away from endless culture wars… and instead, focus all parties and the electorate’s attention on economic, energy, fiscal, foreign, an monetary policies (which explains why there’ll be no push to take culture wars and divide & conquer politics off the table anytime soon).  Could Trump be anymore pleased?  How?  Could Carney be any better served by his alliance with Trump and Pierre?  (And of course, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the five far-right Con MPs that crossed over to the far-right Carney gov.  Wouldn't I?)

 

Energy & Foreign Policy:  JMH has written extensively about the Alberta oil patch… pointing out on labor, taxes & royalties revenue, catastrophic externalities and liabilities, opportunity costs, US ownership, etc, etc… that this O&G industry is a net drag on the Canadian economy and Canada’s fiscal balance sheet and cashflow statement.  Carney and Premier Smith’s preternatural ability to ignore and overlook the ever-growing pool of catastrophic liabilities generated by the U.S. led O&G criminal enterprise operating in Alberta is breathtaking.  The Carney/Smith axis’ ability to ignore a burning Canada every summer, while pushing extraordinary welfare for the O&G industry, will likely go down in future psychology textbooks as the epitome of cognitive dissonance.  Alberta O&G is a huge loser, when stacked up against renewables.  (Moreover, if bond underwriters were doing their job, they’d discount Oil and Gas as a reserve/strategic asset and going forward, start placing the O&G industry, resources, and reserves in the liability column.)   And yet, there’s Carney, alongside Alberta’s far-right Premier, pushing for a new pipeline with more planned.  A pipeline with little or no private sector financial backing.  That is, more welfare for the American proprietors of the Alberta tar sands.  All this despite, Canada, England, the EU, and the United States, et al, being consumed in a climate and planetary meltdown this summer.  Yeah, the climate disaster is here.  Carney of course, has destroyed whatever climate warrior bona fides and cred he may have once possessed, having trashed carbon rules, regs, standards and objectives for the industry (Trump must be very pleased).  Carney and the Liberal party may yet regret their divorce with the planet and nasty & sordid affair with greed, growth, and American O&G gluttony.  As for foreign policy, Carney had no choice, some sort of Canadian military is required (especially w/ Trump and the US as our next-door neighbor, a/k/a, borrowing from Robin Williams, the coke, meth, and Ritalin den next door).  But Carney should better explain to the public his strategic and tactical aims, why proposed purchases are necessary, the contractor vetting process, the contractor audit process (crucial for an industry noted for outright fraud), and simultaneously, with the EU, demonstrate pushback on the source of the arms buildup, global instability, and wars: Israel and the United States.  After all, it’s the Canadian people who are paying for this build up and the price is austerity and diminished roads, schools, and public hospitals.  The American people would thank Carney and the middle powers for pushing back on Trump’s megalomania.  At the present, Carney’s energy and foreign policies appear to be from Trump’s playbook, that is reckless spending on two planetary killers: fossil fuels and the military.

 

At the end of the day, Carney’s endless growth, resource extraction, financialization, and supply-side, trickle-down economics are consistent with polices seen throughout much of the EU, Five Eyes nations, and North America.  (A notable exception: where many nations are rushing to renewable energy, Carney is doubling down on O&G).  Although simultaneously possibly upsetting the vainglorious Trump, who does not enjoy Carney’s approval rating and has seen his own approval numbers drop like a rock before the midterms.  We may never know how deeply the Carney/Trump alliance runs, or the continuous airing of grievances merely political theatre.  Then again, given Trump’s rumored cognitive problems, he just might blurt out the truth someday, spelling out in detail the breadth, height, and length of the Carney/Trump relationship and rabbit hole.  Some serious red pill action that political junkies will talk about for generations.  In the meantime, what would be difficult to question is that Carney is a huge beneficiary of Trump’s constant tariff wars, covetousness of Canada, and saber rattling.  The continuous shock and awe Trump campaign allows Carney to push through much of his far-right economic agenda with little or limited pushback from the public, politicians, and the MSM. 

And for that, Carney can thank his lucky stars.  Without Trump & Pierre and given Carney’s allegiance to corporate authoritarianism and fascism… and w/ so little improvement in Canada and Canadian lives, under the present regime … Carney may have already found himself with poll numbers as alarming as Trump’s.

Which brings us to the concluding point, Carney needs to begin thinking about the future, his legacy, and his successor.  Carney’s austerity, corporatist, far-right centrist, and technocratic polices have not played out well in Europe and North America, no banker head of state has done well, and all too often centrists & corporatists have paved the way for the extreme right, resurgent left, and Trump like characters.

Tic toc. 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026

Alberta Pipelines, Australian Gas, & Data Centers… As the World Burns

Alberta Pipelines, Australian Gas, & Data Centers… As the World Burns

At least 12 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires broke out in the south-eastern province of Almería as the country endures its second heatwave of the summer.

The regional government of Andalucía said the victims, four of whom are believed to be British, had died while trying to escape the flames near the village of Bédar in the municipality of Los Gallardos.

“There are no words for such pain and I want to offer our condolences to the families of the dead,” Antonio Sanz, the region’s emergency minister, said on Friday morning. “This is terrible news and today the hearts of the people of Andalucía are in mourning.”

-             Fast-spreading wildfire kills at least 12 in southern Spain, Guardian

 

… this is worse than a mistake, it’s a crime scene.

-             JM Hamilton 

By Gregg Wall (7-11-2026)

As the summer heats up, the planet warms, and Europe and North America burns, the climate crisis denialism among elected shills increases, seemingly, in correlation.  

In Canada, PM Carney dumped $20 billion in infrastructure commitments on British Columbia (BC) Premier David Eby’s lap right before announcing a new pipeline in Alberta that would cut across BC.  Mr. Eby and some First Nations tribes had objected to more pipelines, but apparently the price was right, as Eby subsequently backed off and said it really wasn’t his decision to make.   

It’s no longer the private sector's decision either, apparently, as there are no private sector backers at this point, except for a 10% stake by Pembina pipeline corporation.  As of this writing, the Canadian taxpayer is expected to shell out for another corporate welfare project that the American owners of the Alberta tar sands appear to have limited or no interest in.  Oil and Gas majors and OPEC are more interested in profits than increasing global supply and bringing down prices, so a new Alberta pipeline appears to work counter to their interests.  Besides the Americans have the best deal going, a captive lock on Alberta oil, which is mostly land locked.  Unsurprisingly, Carney and Alberta’s Premier Smith left out a great many inconvenient facts in their pipeline announcement, such as:

·      American shareholders own Alberta O&G;

·      Americans haul the Alberta product South for huge profits;

·      Americans collect billions in subsidies and free pipelines from the Canadian taxpayer;

·      America underpays Canadian royalties and taxes, under a private sector extraction method, versus Norway’s public sector extraction methodology;

·      America leaves hundreds of billions of oil field externalities and liabilities for Canadians to pay… there is zero push by Premier Smith and the UCP government to hold the Americans accountable and collect adequate collateral, bonds, security, taxes, and escrow to pay for cleanup and remediation (and the bill is climbing fast);

·      And, when Canada exports to Asia, it’s still at the direction of the Americans, who profit… not Canada;

·      If in fact, the Americans continue to collect the profits and dump hundreds of billions of liabilities, externalities, healthcare costs, environmental damages, economic damages, forgone opportunity costs on the Canadian people… so that for every barrel extracted, subsidies and externalities exceed royalties and taxes… there is little doubt Alberta O&G is a net loser for Canada.  Especially when we consider that renewables hires far more people (3X per dollar of CAPEX spent), while the oil patch is gutting its workforce. 

·      In fact, nearly all the positives about oil and gas… how it’s a source of revenue to fund social programs… can be said about renewables, w/out the planetary destruction hangover, boom bust cycles, the externalities, the opportunity costs, endless corruption, the endless Middle East wars fought to keep O&G prices elevated, etc.   Note too, unlike the Oil Majors and OPEC endlessly manipulating supply, corporations will have a harder time manipulating the sun.  Corporate greed will have a hard time manipulating hydro and wind, which probably explains why billionaires, oligarchs, the politicians are in no hurry to see Oil & Gas go and for renewables to take over.  There’s an awful lot of money to be made in manipulated markets.

Seems odd that the Harvard educated Carney would leave out all this information and facts.  What could have been an opportunity for Carney to educate Alberta at the pipeline announcement, became little more than a box checking event, a one-sided sales pitch, another prospective taxpayer funded public works/jobs program in a dead end and dying industry, and a pitiful appeal to separatist traitors in Alberta.  The pipeline will do nothing to lower retail gas prices for Canadians, who are presently paying $6.32 CAD per U.S. gallon… an absolutely criminal figure for a nation so rich in oil and gas.  Many separatist leaders have already gone on record as non-plussed by the Carney-Smith pact.  Carney and Smith will likely both be out of office long before this latest proposed pipeline is completed, if it gets off the ground and doesn’t stall out mid-stream.

The reality, the cost benefit analysis is in on Alberta’s/Canada’s foray into a privatized oil and gas patch, versus Norway’s publicly owned North Sea oil patch:

Alberta Heritage account: $31billion.

Norway Sovereign wealth fund: $2 trillion.

Factor hundreds of billions in unpaid externalities and liabilities… and Canada is in the hole.  In total, Canada is in the hole, as well, for hundreds of billions in revenue that should have gone to the Canadian people (see Norway), not American O&G and private shareholders, plus hundreds of billions in externalities & subsidies.  And now, we are compounding this epic environmental and financial disaster by a failure not to convert to renewable energy rapidly enough.  Forgone opportunity costs for the public (the public extraction Norway model), plus hundreds of billions in externalities and subsidies, shifted onto the backs of the public… this is worse than a mistake, it’s a crime scene.

 

 

 

Good times, good times… up next was Premier Smith’s announced Meta/Zuckerberg data center.  Many Albertans are well educated on data centers and have seen Americans raising hell and organizing politically against oligarchy data centers, surveillance state data centers, police state data centers, Orwellian/German Stasi data centers, EVIL DATA CENTERS.  It’s hard to miss.  Specifically, Americans object to what I refer to as the data center tax: higher utility costs, higher electricity bills, depleted water supplies, noise and environmental pollution, eminent domain, confiscated farmland and property.  The usual American scam: privatized profits, while costs, expenses, taxes are shifted onto the backs of the families, the public, the taxpayer.  And there’s the corruption and the knowledge that US democracy is crumbling as many data centers are crammed down the public’s throat with zero or limited input and consultation.   The data center tax is a serious nut, at time Americans are drowning in an affordability crisis. 

But there’s not an oligarch that Queen Dani, seemingly, won’t cater to.  And there’s not a citizen’s back that Queen Dani, seemingly, won’t step on and break with her cowboy boots if they dare get in the way of a data center and a data center press announcement.  To cut to the chase, seemingly missed by Dani and UCP was another inconvenient fact: Americans are running billionaires, surveillance/police state data centers, and all the chaos data centers deliver out of the United States (at least newly proposed data centers).  So, in her lust for headlines, it should surprise no one that the Queen of Failure and Greed opens her arms wide for what Americans are overwhelmingly rejecting.  

Besides, data centers increase O&G demand, increase lowballed taxes and meager royalties from UCP’s beloved O&G industry… and with that increase in demand so goes the increase in the aforementioned environmental damages, healthcare costs, poisoned communities, and burned up towns.  Meta was originally going to build out their own energy source, so Alberta was told, only for the public to find out that Meta is hooking up to the main utility grid, at least during construction and early stages of data center operation (w/ Meta’s own grid and power source operating in 2030, or so we are told).

It’s a never-ending cycle of hell with the UCP government.

Which should give Alberta pause, as Dani has big plans for many, many more data centers. 

As for Alberta and Dani’s Stampede surprise, it’s a good time to remember that data centers and their build out are occurring before AI is actually determined to be commercially viable.  Moreover, these data centers serve: 

·      Oligarchs;

·      Greed;

·      Wall St.;

·      Possible asset bubble;

·      Politicians desperate to keep the neoliberal economy stumbling forward;

·      Surveillance State/Police State;

·      Delay the death of Oil & Gas; 

·      Billionaire capture of AI tech.

The obvious solution: Citizens need to shut down the data centers, go full NIMBY… and insist upon oversight, review, and a seat at the table in regards: AI use, AI misuse, and AI development.  Alberta is no exception.  Given how loathed and despised billionaires, data centers, AI, and corrupt/criminal politicians have become… the public should exercise considerable leverage in insisting that data centers run on renewable energy and are forced to clean up contaminated water and operate on said water (rather than consume fresh water).  Plus pay taxes equal to the upper most income tax bracket Canadians face, w/ no deductions, no loopholes.  (This assumes Canadians want data centers; many Canadian will not want data centers under any conditions.)  It certainly would be an improvement over Carney’s and Dani’s shock and awe corporate welfare campaigns.  Ditto for Carney’s pipeline to nowhere, the one with zero, or limited, private sector support for a fuel source that is lethal.  

Finally, and to place a bow on this piece, I wanted to write on Australia’s rebellion over its exploding LNG industry but I’m running out of both steam and time.   The Australian LNG crisis should sound very familiar to Canadians: American owners, exorbitant state subsidies, Americans running away from cleanup and remediation, externalities shifted to the taxpayer, lowballed taxes and a manipulated tax code.  

Gee, sounds like a business model: buy off local politicians, steal as much & many resources as possible, repatriate earnings to the U.S., and screw the locals on royalties and known costs and expense.  Plus, charge extreme prices in the Aussie and Canadian markets.  Australians are speaking up… Canadians should do the same.

The same old American scam: privatized profits, socialized cleanup, infrastructure, expense, bailouts, and externalities.  Meanwhile, the industry is exporting as much LNG as possible to Asia, manufacturing a shortage of gas for Australia, and gouging Aussies in the process.   

Sound familiar, Canada? 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026