Within a span of fewer than seven days, Canada’s Prime Minister has moved from endorsing U.S. actions targeting Iran to pointing out that the U.S. and Israel “acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting with allies, including Canada”—and on Wednesday, he did not rule out Canada’s military involvement in the conflict.
“He’s been all over the map,” Nader Hashemi— a Canadian-born associate professor of Middle East politics at Georgetown University— told Digital. “This doesn’t reflect well on him or on Canada’s government.”
“From my perspective, he’s being shaped by public sentiment and his grasp of Canada’s national interests—particularly the central relationship with the U.S. His initial statement was highly supportive of the U.S.-Israeli attack, but he reversed course two days later after facing significant pushback, as it failed to mention Canada’s commitment to international law, the rules-based order, and the United Nations.”
When reporters asked Carney during his Wednesday trip to Australia whether Canada would join U.S. military efforts against Iran, he told them that “one can never categorically rule out participation” and that Canada “will stand by our allies, when makes sense.”
Yet former NATO commander and retired Canadian Major-General David Fraser told CTV News Channel that it’s “unlikely” Canada would be pulled into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran unless a , called for help under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Hashemi noted that Carney’s recent remarks indicate the Canadian prime minister’s wish to avoid “creating a deeper rift with the United States than already exists.”
Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, summed up the prime minister’s shifting stance on the with an X post: “We support it, we’re upset about it, we think it’s bad, but also, we might join in.”
Her fellow Conservative, Michael Chong—who serves as the shadow foreign affairs minister—told Canadian broadcaster CTV that “supporting the airstrikes and at the same time calling for a secession of those strikes” is “an inherent contradiction.”
Carney has also faced criticism from the political left.
Following the start of airstrikes on Iran, Alexandre Boulerice—foreign affairs critic for Canada’s New Democratic Party—stated in a release that his party “strongly condemns the American and Israeli bombings of Iran” and “deplores the Carney government’s decision to blindly support this dangerous venture by Israel and Donald Trump’s administration. We want Canada to be a voice for diplomacy, peace and international law.”
During his Australian visit this week, the prime minister stated that “hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws while others bear the consequences.”
He also noted that Canada backs “efforts to prevent and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” but added that Canada “take[s] this position with regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order.”
Carney stated that “Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal.”
Also this week, at a security and defense conference in Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated that Canada urges “on all sides to respect the rules of international engagement” and that “international law binds all parties” in the Middle East conflict.
An Angus Reid Institute poll—released Tuesday and featuring 1,619 participants—found that 49% of Canadians opposed the against Iran, while 34% supported it.