Carney could set an agenda independent of that inherited from his predecessor Justin Trudeau. Among the items to be addressed could be ties between India and Canada, which cratered after Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar three months earlier in Surrey, British Columbia.
Carney has also signalled he may be willing to reset the relationship. On Saturday morning, as the Federal election campaign neared it close, he described that relationship as “incredibly important”.
He did not directly address the festering matter of Nijjar’s killing, but suggested differences which led to the cratering of ties could be resolved. He said, “There are strains on that relationship that we didn’t cause, to be clear, but there is a path forward to address those with mutual respect and to build out.”
With the threats of a trade war from US President Donald Trump looming, he may be taking the pragmatic path towards rebuilding the relationship with the world’s fifth largest economy, as he stressed, “It’s one of the opportunities I would look to pursue if I were selected by Canadians.”
It wasn’t an isolated remark, as on March 4 during the campaign for leadership of the Liberal Party, he told reporters in Calgary, Alberta, “What Canada will be looking to do is to diversify our trading relationships with like-minded countries and there are opportunities to rebuild the relationship with India.”
Ajay Bisaria, India’s former High Commissioner to Ottawa, said, “Carney has a firm mandate to re-order Canadian global priorities at a time when he faces a volatile US and a dangerous China. This also marks an inflection point for India-Canada ties since Carney has the opportunity to fix what Trudeau wantonly broke.”
Bisaria listed the potential outcomes for the near future: “Carney needs to signal that he is willing to engage with India to move forward pragmatically, rebuild trust, bolster economic ties, engage on security issues and reboot the stalled trade agreement.”
Among the first indicators observers of the India-Canada bilateral relationship will be whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi is invited to the G7 Leaders’ summit in the resort of Kananaskis in Alberta from June 15 to 17. An invitation to that global meet would not just be a confidence building measure but also allow for the first bilateral meeting of the two leaders after Carney’s assumption of the Prime Minister’s post.
Bisaria’s view had been echoed by retired Canadian diplomat David McKinnon in a dispatch for the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada last week. McKinnon, who was stationed at Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi between 2004 and 2009, noted, “As Canadians grow increasingly concerned about a more assertive China under President Xi Jinping and an unreliable US under (President Donald) Trump, the question is no longer whether we need a serious, strategic relationship with India — but how.”
“While the Nijjar case cannot be ignored, this episode — however serious — should not dictate the entirety of our policy,” he stressed.
That case will be the wild card as the trial is in progress before a court in British Columbia but details are unavailable due to a publication ban.
However, India could assuage Canadian sentiments by instituting a high-level inquiry into the murder as is in the case of the attempt on the life of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) general counsel Gurpatwant Pannun in the US.
The other wild card will be the level of influence the pro-Khalistan lobby exerts over Carney as he begins his four-year term.
Carney has presented himself as a problem-solver in times of turmoil, and, as he said, with “mutual respect”, India and Canada could find a path forward after two years and multiple opportunities have been wasted.
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