Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent almost as much time abroad as he has at home since his election last year, reaffirming and rebuilding his country's international relationships as the US becomes less of a reliable partner.
On 28 February, while on a high-stakes visit to India as the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, Carney released a statement that made his position unabashedly clear.
After four paragraphs, in which he outlined why Iran provoked the attack, he said: "Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security."
The Trump administration, in fact, had not even fully settled on the nuclear issue as the key rationale for starting the war. But it seemed that Carney had.
This is despite the US not obtaining a United Nations mandate for its mission, which has usually set the trajectory for Canadian foreign policy.
Middle East Eye ISSN 2634-2456