Iranian state media can use Canada’s trade dispute with Donald Trump for propaganda. That doesn’t make Canada an ally, follower or ideological cousin of the Iranian regime. It means propaganda found a useful headline.
Iranian state media has apparently discovered Canada.
Rebel News reported Thursday that Iranian state-run media, including Tasnim News Agency, has highlighted Canada’s escalating trade confrontation with the United States and portrayed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s resistance to Donald Trump’s economic pressure as evidence that other countries are following Iran’s example of defiance toward Washington.
If that’s the message being promoted, it certainly makes for provocative propaganda.
There’s just one enormous problem.
Canada isn’t Iran.
Not politically.
Not institutionally.
Not ideologically.
And certainly not in the way Canadians are permitted to disagree with their own government.
Iranian state media using a Canadian trade dispute for its own messaging tells us something about Iranian propaganda.
It tells us almost nothing about Canada.
Canada isn’t resisting America because Iran showed us how
Canada and the United States are currently engaged in a serious trade dispute.
The United States imposed new tariffs of up to 50 per cent on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods.
Canada responded with counter-tariffs covering $27.6 billion in American imports that took effect September 8, with rates of 15, 25 and 50 per cent depending on the product.
Those are facts.
But Canada’s response isn’t based on some Iranian doctrine of “resistance.”
It’s based on something considerably less exotic:
Canadian economic and national interests.
Ottawa says the American measures harm Canadian workers and businesses and that demands made during negotiations weren’t in Canada’s interests.
Canada responded.
You can agree with that decision.
You can disagree with it.
You can argue Carney has handled the dispute brilliantly.
You can argue he has mishandled it completely.
That’s democracy.
But Canada’s willingness to defend its interests against Washington doesn’t suddenly put Ottawa in ideological company with Tehran.
Countries disagree with the United States all the time.
Allies disagree with each other.
That’s international relations.
Iran’s government and Canada’s government aren’t remotely comparable
This distinction shouldn’t require much explanation.
Canada is a constitutional democracy.
Canadians can publicly attack Mark Carney.
They can mock him.
They can campaign against him.
Journalists can investigate him.
Opposition politicians can call for his government to fall.
Canadians can organize demonstrations against his policies.
And eventually Canadians can walk into a voting booth and remove his government.
That isn’t a small difference.
It is the difference.
Only weeks ago, Canada joined more than 30 countries and the European Union in condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ongoing executions of protesters and its use of the death penalty to silence dissent, intimidate communities and punish people exercising their human rights.
The joint statement also called on Iran to release people arbitrarily detained.
That’s Canada.
The same country Iranian state media is reportedly attempting to incorporate into its own narrative of resistance to Washington.
There’s some irony in that.
Propaganda doesn’t require permission
This is the part Canadians should understand.
Iran doesn’t need Mark Carney’s permission to quote him.
Russia doesn’t need Canada’s permission to use something a Canadian politician says.
China doesn’t need Pierre Poilievre’s permission to repeat one of his criticisms of the Canadian government.
Foreign state media can take practically anything said in a democracy and incorporate it into its own narrative.
That doesn’t establish an alliance.
It doesn’t establish ideological agreement.
And it certainly doesn’t mean the person being quoted endorses the government doing the quoting.
Otherwise we’d arrive at an absurd standard:
If an authoritarian government agrees with something you said, you must somehow share responsibility for that government’s ideology.
That’s nonsense.
The proper question isn’t:
Who repeated the statement?
It’s:
Was the statement true?
And Canada is still talking to Washington
There’s another inconvenient fact for anyone trying to portray Canada as embracing some Iranian-style campaign against America.
Carney said Thursday that he has spoken with President Trump “a couple of times” recently.
Among the subjects they’ve discussed?
Iran.
They’ve also discussed Ukraine.
On the same day, Canada announced a
air-defence package for Ukraine, aimed at providing critical interceptors as Russia continues its attacks.
That’s not evidence of Canada joining some anti-Western ideological bloc.
It’s a Western democracy having a serious economic dispute with its closest neighbour while continuing to communicate and cooperate with that neighbour on major international security issues.
International relationships can be complicated.
Apparently headlines sometimes struggle with that.
We don’t have to defend Carney to defend reality
North of Polite isn’t interested in protecting Mark Carney from criticism.
If his trade strategy fails, we’ll say so.
If Canada makes a bad deal, we’ll examine it.
If his government exaggerates its accomplishments, we’ll check the receipts.
And if Pierre Poilievre proposes something better, we’ll say that too.
But criticism should survive contact with reality.
Canada imposing retaliatory tariffs against Donald Trump’s government doesn’t make Canada Iran.
It doesn’t make Canadians followers of the Islamic Republic.
It doesn’t transform a democratic trade dispute into an ideological crusade against the United States.
It means Canada believes another government has taken economic action against Canadian interests and has responded.
That’s what sovereign countries do.
Canada can oppose Trump without opposing America
This distinction may be the most important one.
Donald Trump is not the United States.
Mark Carney is not Canada.
Governments are temporary.
Countries and their relationships are much larger.
Canadians can oppose decisions made by the Trump administration while still valuing Americans as neighbours, friends, allies and trading partners.
The same principle works in reverse.
An American who disagrees with Carney isn’t anti-Canadian.
They’re disagreeing with a politician.
That’s democracy too.
Canada and the United States have built one of the deepest economic, cultural and security relationships in the world.
A trade war doesn’t erase that history.
Neither does refusing to surrender Canadian interests simply because Washington is more powerful.
Iran can tell whatever story it wants
Tehran’s state media can portray Canada’s actions however it chooses.
That’s what state propaganda does.
But Canadians don’t have to accept the framing.
Canada isn’t following Iran.
Canada isn’t adopting Iran’s political system.
Canada isn’t embracing Iran’s treatment of dissent.
Canada isn’t taking lessons in democracy from Tehran.
Quite the opposite.
Canada recently joined dozens of other governments in explicitly condemning Iran’s execution of protesters and suppression of fundamental rights.
So perhaps the simplest response to Iranian state media — and anyone tempted to treat its use of Canada as evidence of Canadian ideological alignment — is this:
Iran can use Canada’s story.
It doesn’t get to define it.
Canada is defending Canadian interests through the institutions of a democratic country.
You can support that strategy.
You can oppose it.
You can vote against the government responsible for it.
And that freedom to disagree openly, loudly and without asking the government’s permission is precisely why comparing democratic Canada with the Iranian regime tells us very little about Canada—
and quite a lot about the weakness of the comparison.
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