Marco Mendicino: Carney’s defence industrial strategy signals a new era of Canadian sovereignty

Former public safety minister Marco Mendicino says Canada's new Defence Industrial Strategy represents a fundamental break from the assumption that economic integration with the U.S. guarantees our security.

For generations, Canada lived under a durable assumption: integration guarantees security. We carried the flag for multilateralism in the postwar period, embedding ourselves in alliances, supply chains and global markets, confident that economic openness and collective defence would reinforce our sovereignty.

By and large, that strategy helped Canada prosper. But in today’s volatile world, it no longer holds.

Prime Minister Mark Carney gave voice to this reality at Davos when he warned that the old assumptions underpinning the international rules-based order had eroded. With characteristic clarity and composure, he declared: “You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.” Canada could no longer go along to get along.

Our prior paradigm depended on stable supply chains, reliable partners, and a global environment governed by shared rules. Recent shocks caused by higher tariffs and intensifying geopolitical conflicts have exposed the limits of those assumptions. Rather than lament the world as it was, the prime minister challenged us to see the world as it is.

Canada’s newly released Defence Industrial Strategy is the clearest expression yet of that shift. It signals that Canada is taking down the old sign of ‘integration guarantees security’ and replacing it with a new one: ‘Sovereignty through capability.’