Prime Minister Mark Carney’s whirlwind tour over the last week with stops in Kiev, Warsaw, Berlin and Riga, Latvia, confirms that the new Liberal government intends to deepen Canadian imperialism’s economic and military ties with the European powers amid a developing third imperialist world war.
In Ukraine, Carney detailed the allocation of an additional C$2 billion in weapons and war materiel; in Germany, he pushed natural gas exports and signed a critical-minerals pact; in Latvia, he renewed Canada’s command of NATO’s multinational brigade; and on multiple European stops he touted the procurement of a new submarine fleet as part of his rearmament plan to position Canada as a significant player in the redivision of the world among the major powers.
The Prime Minister’s trip was choreographed to begin in Kiev on August 24—Ukrainian Independence Day—where he detailed how the C$2 billion, first pledged at the June G7 summit in Kananaskis, will be parceled out: C$835 million for equipment ranging from armoured vehicles to ammunition and drones; roughly C$680 million for a NATO-prioritized US kit focused on air defence; C$220 million for drones, counter-drone and electronic-warfare systems, including joint Canadian-Ukrainian ventures; C$165 million for capability coalitions; and C$100 million via the Czech ammunition initiative. This fuel for the slaughter in Ukraine is paired with C$31 million in humanitarian and “stabilization” funding—window dressing for a massive armaments surge.
The Liberal government boasts it has delivered nearly C$22 billion to Ukraine since 2022—the largest per capita financial contribution in the G7.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025. [AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky]
“Ukraine is … at the frontline of the struggle for democracy and freedom,” Carney proclaimed in Kiev, insisting “allies must step up and lead.” He amplified the message on X with the declaration: “Ukraine’s fight is our fight.” These are the slogans of a government preparing Canadian workers to pay for escalating imperialist war.
From Poland, Carney sharpened the implications: Canada, he said, would not rule out participating in a post-war “security guarantee” in Ukraine—up to and including putting Canadian troops on the ground as a tripwire for a wider war against Russia. He also hailed the “essential” role that Canadian military personnel are currently playing in training Ukrainian troops under Operation UNIFIER.
The proposal to send Canadian, i.e. NATO troops to Ukraine is totally unacceptable to Russia, which launched its reactionary invasion of Ukraine due to the provocations of NATO’s eastward expansion. The aim of this proposal, which is also being advanced by the European powers, is to escalate the war with Russia and sabotage Trump’s attempt to reach an agreement with Moscow, over the heads the other NATO powers. Through a “peace deal,” Trump seeks to both gain US access to the resources of Russia and the Ukraine, at the expense of the European powers and Canada, and focus American imperialism’s might on preparing for war with China and securing unbridled control over the Americas.
Carney’s stop in Warsaw also produced a new strategic partnership with Poland which explicitly ties Canadian firms into Europe’s rush to “re-arm,” opening EU procurement channels to Canadian companies. Put plainly: Ottawa aims to sell Canadian weapons and components into a continental military build-up—which the European Union’s 27 members have pledged to invest €800 billion in—while advertising Canada as a reliable ally for military provocations across NATO’s eastern flank with Russia.
In Berlin, Carney pushed forward on two fronts bound tightly to Canadian corporate interests: fossil fuels and critical minerals. He announced talks to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to German buyers and promised near-term federal port-infrastructure announcements to move gas and minerals at scale across the North Atlantic.
German industry, still scrambling to replace Russian gas after the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, is already exploring swaps for Canadian Pacific-coast LNG cargoes to serve European needs. Ottawa and Berlin also signed a “Joint Declaration of Intent” to co-fund critical-minerals projects for defence, aerospace and EV supply chains. This is the language of commercial and military conflict, aimed at securing the resources to dominate new technologies like “clean energy,” and to mass produce high-tech armaments of all kinds.
Carney also used his stop in Berlin to advance another crucial block in reaming Canada’s military and dramatically expanding its military-industrial capacities—submarine procurement. The prime minister announced Ottawa has shortlisted German and South Korean yards to build a new fleet of 12 advanced diesel-electric attack submarines, with a contract to be finalized by 2028 and first delivery no later than 2035. These new subs will cost tens of billions over the vessels’ life.
The trip culminated on Russia’s border in Latvia, where Carney announced a three-year extension of Operation Reassurance—Canada’s largest overseas military mission. He reaffirmed Canada’s role as the “framework nation” leading the NATO Multinational Brigade in Latvia, a 3,000-strong formation of troops from 14 allies, currently anchored by 2,200 Canadian soldiers. Ottawa promises to complete the roll out of “persistent” brigade capabilities by 2026, with the deployment of an additional 400 Canadian Armed Forces troops, bringing the total to 2,600.
“To secure lasting peace in Ukraine and Europe,” Carney declared, “we must deter and fortify.” This lays the basis for the permanent deployment of Canadian troops little more than 500 kilometers from Moscow’s main cities–St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Behind the choreography lies a ruthless geopolitical calculus. Carney’s Europe push is explicitly framed as a hedge against the United States under Donald Trump. Washington has been Canada’s chief geostrategic and, economic, and military partner for over eight decades, but Trump’s threat to annex Canada and imposition of tariffs have compelled the Canadian ruling class to look elsewhere for allies.
On August 21, Ottawa issued a readout of a Carney–Trump call in which they discussed a “new (Canada-US) economic and security relationship.” The very next day, Carney rolled back many of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs to “restart” talks—concessions Trump promptly praised as a “nice” gesture.
Carney and the Canadian bourgeoisie’s attempt to balance between privileged access to the US market, and the European powers’ rearmament drive and determination to escalate the war with Russia at all costs is increasingly untenable. The rift in trans-Atlantic relations that has burst to the surface since Trump began his second term in the White House has turned the erstwhile NATO allies into competitors and, under certain conditions, belligerent rivals for control over raw materials, markets, production networks, and geostrategic territories and influence.
Canada’s Tory-aligned gutter press, in particular the Toronto Sun, tried to score points by painting Carney’s Kiev stop as a face-saving reaction to Canada’s absence from the extraordinary White House meeting on Ukraine with European leaders earlier this month. Carney was apparently not invited to participate as the heads of government of Europe’s four largest countries and the chief of the EU Commission rushed to Washington at a day’s notice to try to block Trump’s effort at an accommodation with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their summit in Alaska. Whether or not the “snub” stung, it is secondary to Ottawa’s strategic aims. Canada has deep and longstanding interests in Ukraine, expressed in its close political and military ties with the Ukrainian far right. The European tour was first and foremost about locking in a larger role for Canadian imperialism across the continent, whatever the reason Carney was not invited to Washington.
Carney boasted on his X feed: “Canada and Ukraine are united by the defence of freedom, democracy, and life.” This is the oldest rhetorical varnish for imperialist aims: securing resources and markets, deepening military basing, and binding Canada to the Europeans mega-billion dollar rearmament schemes.
The government’s own statements expose the scale of the war build-up more broadly. Ottawa has committed to C$9 billion in new defence spending in 2025-26 and pledged that Canada will reach NATO’s 2 percent benchmark this fiscal year—after decades of falling short. Carney further signed up to a new pledge aimed at bringing total military spending to 5 percent of GDP—3.5 percent on core defence, plus 1.5 percent in defence-related infrastructure investments by 2035.
These are staggering sums that can be met only through a frontal assault on social spending and workers’ living standards. Every dollar poured into submarines, electronic warfare, over-the-horizon sensors and forward brigades is a dollar ripped from public funding for hospitals and a public healthcare system stretched to the breaking point and deeply underfunded schools.
For the bourgeoisie to realize social spending cuts on such a scale, they will need to establish the same kind of dictatorial regime in Canada that Trump is endeavouring to erect south of the border. The submarine program alone, together with new missiles, drones and brigade sustainment, will devour tens of billions of dollars of public funds. In a country where emergency rooms shutter overnight and foodbank use and homelessness have reached record levels, the savage onslaught on what remains of public services, social supports and worker rights will inevitably provoke widespread popular opposition.
Carney’s Liberal government–promoted by the unions and social democratic NDP as a preferred alternative to the Conservatives–is pushing guns over butter. The “security” it speaks of is the security of corporate profits—energy conglomerates exporting LNG, mining companies processing critical minerals, and defence contractors feeding at the public trough.
Workers must draw the necessary conclusions. The tightening noose of war and austerity cannot be fought within the framework of the capitalist political establishment— led by the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP social democrats, and CAQ and PQ Quebec nationalists—or under the direction of the pro-capitalist trade union apparatuses, which have tied workers to the state and to Canadian imperialism’s predatory commercial and war aims. The path forward lies in the fight for the industrial and political mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods—independent of and in opposition to all the political representatives of big business.
Workers must reject the social cuts demanded by the imperialists’ rearmament and war, oppose Canada’s imperialist interventions, and unite with workers across Europe, the United States, Russia and Ukraine in a common struggle against capitalism, the root cause of war. That is the only way to prevent a crisis-ridden capitalism plunging humanity into world war and to secure the social and democratic rights of the entire working class.
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