For the first time since 1977, and the third time ever, the monarch of the British empire appeared before Canada’s parliament to read the speech from the throne to open a parliamentary session.
King Charles’ words were, for the most part, written by officials in the newly elected Canadian government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney—and, as with all speeches from the throne, outline the government’s priorities for the coming parliament.
Much of the content of the speech, then, was not surprising. Charles spoke extensively about Canada’s role in the “imperfect” multilateral and free trade-based world order, and how Canada must defend its sovereignty in that context. It was a not-so-subtle jab at Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada as the “51st state” of the United States.
But beyond those rhetorical flourishes, much of the agenda that the government—via the king—laid out leaves a lot to be concerned about. Much of it, even, checks the boxes on Donald Trump’s wish list for Canada.
With Trump, the tail wags the dog
On a day when Canada’s government turned to the King of England to send a message, ostensibly to Trump, the reality is Trump’s fingerprints are on this speech.
Canada is about to embark on a major expansion of defensive efforts, mostly to placate Trump. Border security. Fentanyl foes. Helicopters. Drones. K-9 teams. It is Trump, not this government, who is setting this agenda. The tail is wagging the dog.
The part where Canada needs to react to the jolt of Trump’s tariff wars focused on interprovincial trade bluster and an affordable housing agenda, which is mostly incentives to the private sector to build and face smaller development fees. Canada will have more housing, but its affordability is by no means guaranteed.
There was no mention of the urgent need to reform Employment Insurance (EI) to backstop those who have already lost their job to this economic moment, and to the many more who will lose their job in the coming year. Canadians will need more robust federal supports to get through this period of deep insecurity.
One thing is becoming clearer: that insecurity extends to federal public servants. The throne speech referenced the goal of cutting “waste”, reducing duplications, and employing technology to “improve productivity.” These are code words for cuts to public services.
The most disconcerting on this front will be the deployment of AI initiatives in the public sector, under the new Ministry of AI and Digitization. We’ll be monitoring this ministry closely—it will potentially be the epicentre of public service cuts by uncritically embracing AI to replace good jobs and diminish the quality of public services.
—Trish Hennessy, CCPA senior strategist
Government embraces “fortress Canada”
One of the repeated themes of the speech was the government’s plan to rebuild Canada’s military capacity. Reading the speech from the government, King Charles announced: “The government will protect Canada’s sovereignty by rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces.” He said that the government will “spur the expansion of the Canadian defence industry” by participating in a plan to re-arm and re-militarize Europe.
The speech did not mention the government’s public commitments to join the United States’ “Golden Dome” missile defense program over North America, which is purportedly meant to defend the continent from the threat of transcontinental missiles coming from overseas. The plan, which echoes a much-ridiculed attempt from the 1980s known as “Star Wars,” would involve AI-powered missile defense shooting down hypersonic missiles after they are detected by satellites. If that sounds like a fantasy, it’s because it is.
What the speech did mention, though was the government’s plan to “strengthen its presence in the North” in the face of “new threats” during comments about building up military capacity—statements that seem to allude to a program to militarize the arctic as the region becomes an increasingly important shipping corridor due to climate change induced ice cap melt. How that fits in with Indigenous reconciliation—something the speech also emphasized, including with the British monarch performing a land acknowledgement—is fraught at best.
It’s not just the northern border being militarized. The king spoke, as well, about the government’s plans to grant new powers to border agents to stem the supposed tide of fentanyl across the border to the U.S.—an imaginary problem with the real world effect of granting more police powers to border agents. Charles announced that the government would deploy new “scanners, drones and helicopters, additional personnel, and K-9 teams” to tackle fentanyl trafficking.
This will take place in a context of new government immigration limits, which are apparently meant to “restore balance” to Canada’s immigration system. The caps will target temporary foreign workers and international students, in particular.
If this program sounds familiar, it’s because it should—many of these are Donald Trump’s demands on Canada. Trump has repeatedly called for Canada to increase its defence spending to reach NATO targets and militarize its borders. The government, through Charles, wrapped that program in a Canadian flag.
—Jon Milton, CCPA senior communications specialist
Tax cuts are a go—and so are service cuts
The first specific and concrete policy that the king referenced in his speech was a tax cut. Although not a surprise, the government’s decision to implement a broad and expensive rate reduction for the lowest tax bracket is going ahead.
The maximum possible individual benefit from this is $412 per person, and the throne speech quotes $840 for a couple. If you make it three people in a household, it becomes $1,236, and so on. In the real world, though, no one will actually get that much. The average savings will be about $300 per person, but only for upper-middle and upper-class tax filers. The average amount for a person in poverty is $11.
The tax cut will cost a fortune: over $2.5 billion this year and over $6 billion next. It’s an incredibly expensive way to give the top half of income earners a few hundred bucks they don’t need anyway.
We’re also seeing nothing in this speech about folks who are losing their job to the trade war. Layoffs in the auto, steel and aluminum sector are already happening, and will continue. Reforms to EI are urgently needed to prepare us for more, but unemployed workers didn’t feature in this throne speech.
The king (that is, the Liberal government) does tout its past achievements, under Trudeau, of reducing costs. And rightly so, as several of these have drastically reduced costs for families: the throne speech notes child care, pharmacare and the Canadian dental plan as keystone policies. These policies, though, are already on the books, not new initiatives.
Now, cuts to the federal public service are coming—and fast, according to the throne speech. Big reductions in spending are already being booked, and exclusively against the federal operating budget. The speech claims that the federal government won’t touch federal transfers to other jurisdictions or individuals, just focus on eliminating waste and duplication. That all sounds nice, but the reality will be longer waits to get a passport and no one to answer your call when there’s a foul up on your taxes. The fall fiscal update/budget may give us more actual details on what this looks like by department.
—David Macdonald, CCPA senior economist
Where did the “climate king” go?
For six decades, King Charles has been a champion of environmental causes. He is referred to as the “climate king” by supporters and detractors alike. Yet the throne speech made only passing mention to the issue King Charles has railed against as an existential threat for much of his life.
Vague commitments to respect environmental standards, support clean energy and fight climate change offer little assurance that the government will prioritize those issues—especially given its support, reiterated in this speech, for “conventional” fossil fuel energy. It may come as little surprise after the prime minister’s mandate letter last week notably excluded climate from the government’s priority list, but the lack of clear climate language in the throne speech is a concerning reiteration.
Federal climate progress is still possible, and even likely, in the coming years. The challenge will be making enough progress to avoid a retrenchment of oil and gas interests and emissions. When it comes to climate change, we don’t have any time to waste on half-measures and false solutions.
—Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, CCPA senior researcher
Issues of equality were ignored in the throne speech
Canada is facing “a series of crises”, as the government acknowledges at the top of the speech. But, as we contemplate the future, it would be a mistake to cleave to narrow neoliberal policy prescriptions, as this speech lays out, the very policy prescriptions that have fuelled the rise in inequality and economic precarity around the world. The private market won’t save Canada—or create a country where all can thrive.
The speech upholds and reinforces the idea that economy and society are separate and distinct, that male-dominated manufacturing and natural resources drive the show, that vital social programs and community development are secondary or subservient, that fundamental issues of equality are divorced from the health of the economy.
Tell that to the millions of women working in Canada’s care economy who’ve been running flat out for the last five years. Tell that to Indigenous communities waiting for the government to honour their commitments to close the infrastructure gap on reserve. Tell that to the millions of young people trying to land their first job. Tell that to people with disabilities struggling to access support to live a life of dignity.
Where are they in the government’s speech from the throne?
King Charles concluded: “The scale of the Government’s initiative will match the challenges of our times and the ambitions of Canadians.” Not with this plan. We must aim higher.
—Katherine Scott, CCPA senior researcher
