It is generally accepted that Mark Carney rode an unexpected wave of Canadian nationalism into office, and in many ways his government is still riding it, cresting each time the American president issues another ill-considered public statement.
Yet few weeks have illustrated the basic incoherence of this nationalist project like this one. On Monday and Tuesday, the government hosted the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, where it proclaimed a new era of economic growth across the country, trumpeting the commitment of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign investment across major Canadian industries. It thus signalled an ambitious program of nation-building, spurred by a shared sense of being under threat from an aggrandizing neighbour.
