Kelly McParland: Carney didn’t go to Saudi Arabia to hold up Canada as a moral arbiter

This handout picture released by the Saudi Ministry of Media shows Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) welcoming Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney during his official visit at Al-Salam Royal Palace in Jeddah on July 9, 2026. Photo by AFP Phot /Saudi Ministry of Media/AFP via

Article content

Mark Carney has a finger issue.

Article content

He doesn’t wag his.

Article content

Article content

In the many images of the ever-travelling prime minister, there are few if any depicting him wagging a righteous digit at his hosts as he lectures them on their failure to live up to Canadian moral and behavioural standards.

Article content

When the Carney aircraft touched down in Saudi Arabia last week, he noted he was the first prime minister in 26 years to visit one of the world’s most crucial energy suppliers, investment money-pots and western-friendly regional political powers. That’s because previous leaders were careful to be seen disapproving of official Saudi views, habits and activities.

Article content

Article content

There was much to disapprove of. Riyadh’s treatment of women was medieval at best. The right to drive a car, hold a bank account, get a job or apply for a passport without the consent of a male “guardian” was considered too dangerous and revolutionary to be considered by the country’s all-male rulers. Saudis guilty of holding opinions displeasing to the government — which consisted of a swollen pack of privileged princelings whose great achievement in life was to be born into the ruling clan — were routinely jailed, beaten or mysteriously ended up dead. In the most notorious episode, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was lured to an ambush, murdered, dismembered and disposed of so effectively his parts have still yet to be found.

Article content

Article content

Carney, of course, knows all this. Yet there he was doing the grin-and-grip with Mohammed bin Salman, the current all-powerful royal, sharing a lavish lunch and batting away queries as to why he wasn’t berating the prince about the kingdom’s rotten record on human rights.

Article content

“Engaging with the country doesn’t mean that we agree with everything that a country is doing,” he told questioners, another in his efforts to explain what he considers the painfully obvious. “I do see that lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective.”

Article content

Article content

True enough, though when has the fact something didn’t work ever stopped a Canadian government from doing it anyway?

Article content

Article content

Carney’s practice of keeping his finger under control is a sharp break from his immediate predecessor in prime ministering, who regularly let foreign dignitaries know when they had failed to meet his expectations. Someone in Justin Trudeau’s circle of advisors must have believed that  holding up Ottawa as international arbiter of the acceptable was a winning strategy that would sell well with voters, even if it had no discernible impact on the lectured.

Article content

It certainly did nothing to enhance our standing. Trudeau was snubbed in China, berated by India and treated as an annoying afterthought in Washington when he wasn’t being directly insulted (though in the U.S. case he wasn’t alone). Those happen to be three of the biggest markets for the goods and services Canada would like to sell, but by the end of Trudeau’s days in power relations consisted of little more than the mutual sharing of jibes and accusations. Even as an exercise in high-minded self-righteousness it seemed to have little point.