Why Does Carney Value Project 2025?

Update 2025/09/05: This story has been updated to include comments made by Carney during pride month and his comment during the announcement of the 2025 federal election on abortion that were previously missing.

Project 2025, a plan proposed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, has been the primary blueprint that the second Trump administration has followed in its policy-making. The Project has some seriously troubling goals, including eradicating access to abortion, mass deportations, crackdown on free speech, a rollback on trans rights, interference in classrooms and widespread censorship. Despite distancing himself from it in the election cycle, Trump and his administration have fast-tracked these policies now that they're in office. Reports are now emerging that the Heritage Foundation is aiming for a "Manhattan Project to restore the nuclear family."

Recently, CBC News reported that the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, was set to speak to Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet behind closed doors. Roberts was quoted as saying in the 2024 election that this was a "second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." In the story, the Prime Minister's Office said that Roberts would be speaking about trade issues "because he knows the Trump administration's playbook."

However, the story was updated to reflect that Roberts would no longer be speaking to cabinet. A spokesperson for Roberts said he would be unable to attend, and would be instead be working in Washington.

"Regrettably, Dr. Roberts' office indicated that he can no longer join us to present today," a spokesperson from the PMO told CBC News. "Our team will continue further engagement and discussions with him and other leading U.S. policy figures soon, regarding Canada's economic and security relationship with the United States."

In short, the Carney government invited a non-government actor to speak to the cabinet about the Trump administration's goals for the Canadian trade relationship. This non-government actor had previously openly threatened violence if his way was not met politically, and pushes a project that seeks to undermine and steamroll free speech and LGBTQ2S+ rights while enforcing mass deportation.

All this would lead someone to an understandable litany of questions. These can be condensed into one simple and effective one: What the fuck?

Let's start with common goals. Carney's government has overseen a strict mandate for reduction in federal spending and personnel. Carney said his government will focus an "austerity and investment budget" to be revealed this fall. One analyst that went through Carney's previously promised $13 billion in savings found that these could amount to nearly a quarter of the federal public service being cut. Before this, the Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told the Ottawa Citizen that his plans might mean "severe cuts to the public service, significant cuts." Project 2025 and its loyal executors have made gutting of the civil service a pillar of the their plans.

Carney's Bill C-2 (The Strong Borders Act), ostensibly a border bill, would massively expand surveillance and police powers. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association joined 39 organizations and 122 experts in denouncing Bill C-2 for its role in allowing police to "authorize wide-ranging sharing of sensitive information on migrants and asylum seekers." They also pointed out that the bill would allow CSIS and police agencies to surveil anything from laptops and mobile phones to social media companies and email providers. Project 2025, while also looking to massively target asylum seekers and immigrants, also plans to "exploit the executive branch's vast and unprecedented power to spy on Americans," as the ACLU puts it. Experts have decried Carney's position on the border as the US ramps up deportation efforts.

On censorship, a major plank of Project 2025, the Carney government has remained silent on crucial issues. In the school context, where many culture warriors focus their anti-trans efforts, this has become acutely shown. Most recently, the government of Alberta announced, and then rescinded, a ban on books in school libraries that include "explicit sexual content." As the UCP promises a new order, the federal Liberals have said nothing. Even as trans sports bans and parental permission requirements for name and pronoun changes take effect in the province.

Further, Carney's mandate letter to Cabinet released in May of this year was one page, and notably made no mention of gender. WAGE, the Department for Women and Gender Equality, now faces a possible 81 per cent cut in their budget at the hands of the federal government. Keeping in mind the obvious slight this is specifically to women, people of all genders are, at best, left twisting in the wind. His last statement on issues facing queer Canadians was in June, during pride month, where he said "Canada will always stand up fo the vulnerable and the equal rights we cherish." He also included a funding promise to make pride parades safe

Since Carney's announcement of a federal election, issues of abortion have not been mentioned by Carney. Meanwhile, Project 2025 adherents have escalated their rhetoric against the medical procedure.

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Needless to say, the Carney government's policies, or silence on crucial issues, betrays an uncomfortable reality. Inviting the president of the Heritage Foundation, and key architect of Project 2025, to speak to cabinet behind closed doors is alarming in its boldness– but the extent of the Carney government's alignment with Project 2025 is beyond pure technocratic motives. Considering their alignment on the border, immigration, police powers and the gutting of civil services, Carney is a natural fit into the project. Meanwhile, when trans Americans are seeking to flee their country's radicalization against their existence and major provincial players implement anti-trans laws, Carney says nothing.

Beyond Project 2025, specifically, Carney has also happily acquiesced to US demands. Ditch the Digital Services Tax? Done. End retaliatory tariffs? Done. The expansion of surveillance and border "security" in Bill C-2 betrays a larger vision. The bill was mentioned directly by Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree as containing ways to address "irritants for the US."

Whether Carney truly believes these concessions are good negotiation tactics seems increasingly unlikely. Massive public service cuts, austerity measures and an unprecedented increase to military spending all align with goals that the US Republican party is rabidly pursuing, as well.

It seems fitting that the Carney government invited Roberts to speak to the cabinet. If their original pretext of understanding how to deal with US in the trading sphere is accepted, it still shows how crucial Project 2025 is to Canadian politics. Sickly opportunistic as this explanation may be, it absolves Carney and the Liberals of blame. The truth is, Carney is either doing everything Trump wants or abstaining from going against his ideology, even if just rhetorically.

Canadians are in deep trouble if the nominally centrist party happily mimics the policies and tactics of the US electoral far-right. While this may not explicitly rear its ugly head in the realm of social politics, there are signs of Carney's antipathy towards gender equality, and by extension gender politics in general. We are dealing with an openly right-wing government, one that venerates Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 and Trump's administration.