Mark Carney needs to stop playing the polite middle manager of empire and pattern something real. Get on a plane, land in Tehran, and start talking about safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz for agricultural and medical inputs. Because right now, the whole world is watching that choke-point tighten, and even Western officials are scrambling to reopen it before it starts starving people out.

But none of them are going to Tehran. Carney should.

And while he’s there, yeah, say it with chest. Canada has spent decades moving like a cuck, nodding along behind Washington and London. That posture is tired. That script is finished. If he’s serious about Canada being a “middle power,” then act like one instead of just saying it at conferences.

He can still do the ritual. Mention human rights! But don’t pretend we’ve been consistent. We don’t bring that same energy to Beijing or Delhi.

At the same time, let’s cut through the noise. There are credible strands of thought inside Iran’s leadership that frame nuclear weapons as illegitimate. Let’s test that. Build something around that.

If the play is civilian nuclear development, then step in with something like CANDU and lock it into peaceful use with oversight. That’s leverage. That’s engagement. That’s how you shape outcomes instead of tweeting about them from across the ocean.

Because here’s the reality. Canada doesn’t even have diplomatic relations with Iran right now. We’ve been sanctioning, isolating, condemning for over a decade. Cool. And what has that produced beyond distance and irrelevance?

Meanwhile, we trade with everyone else. The United States. Saudi Arabia. India. China. Countries with their own receipts, their own contradictions.

And let’s talk about the bigger picture. Even Carney himself has admitted this whole situation is exposing cracks in the so-called international order. Power moving how it wants and everyone else scrambling to explain it after the fact. This war represents that.

That’s why people are starting to clock it. Because when the language coming out of Washington and Tel Aviv sounds like pure theatre, and the language coming out of Tehran sounds measured by comparison, something is off. Deeply off. The branding of “good guys” and “bad guys” starts to feel like lazy storytelling instead of reality.

And Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Lebanon? There’s no way to dress that up clean. The historical framing doesn’t land the way it used to. The victim narrative is not carrying the same weight anymore, especially when people can read, compare, and connect dots in real time.

Same goes for the ideology piece. Expansionist thinking dressed up as destiny is not new. Every era has its version. Different language. Same core logic. And it always ends the same way. The greater Israel fan fiction isn’t much different than the esoteric Aryan nonsense of the Nazi’s, the necessary truth of Islam’s Caliphate, or the contrarian make America great again talking points of MAGA.

I mean, MAGA is already talking about pulling back from Canada while chirping us at the same time. Trade threats, random hostility, reckless positioning. And if that’s the direction they’re moving in, then we should be doing the opposite. Canada needs to expand, diversify, and move forward. This dreaming of the good old days is silliness (you hear that PP?).

Because if the United States is set on burning bridges, then Canada’s job is simple. Start building new ones. Further out. Less dependent. More deliberate.

That’s how you stop being carried by the current and start choosing your direction.