Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a press conference in Australia Wednesday that Canada won’t rule out participation in the ongoing conflict between Iran and the joint powers of the U.S. and Israel.
“Canada has long seen Iran as the principal source of instability and terror in the Middle East. The regime and its proxies have
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20, 2026. (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu/Getty Images)
murdered hundreds of Canadian civilians and caused untold suffering for millions of people in the Middle East and beyond,” Carney said Tuesday in a statement to the prime minister’s website.
Matt Farrell is a professor of Canadian and American politics at Fanshawe College in London, Ont.
“In the past, we’ve had at least the (Islamic) Republican Guard (Corps), designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. And we don’t necessarily have what you’d describe as positive diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime,” Farrell said about Canada’s foreign policy towards Iran.
Canada severed it’s diplomatic relationship with Iran in 2012, closing it’s embassy in Tehran and expelling all Iranian diplomats from Canada due to their nuclear program and military assistance to the Assad regime in Syria.
“Canada views the Government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today,” the Canadian government said in a 2012 release on the closing of the embassy in Tehran.
The current situation in the middle east has proven to be a tough one for the government as some Canadians condemn the war while some Canadian businesses use it as an opportunity to sell more of their products.
Matt Farrell (source; Research Gate)
“We have pragmatic business interests for Canadian firms who want to do business selling arms. Here in London, Ont, we have General Dynamics Land Systems that does a lot of business with some countries in the region,” Farrell said about how some businesses profit off of the conflict.
Carney has not touched on what a Canadian involvement could look like in Iran, and Canada’s history in conflicts within the region shows it could be in a variety of ways.
“In the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Canada was front and center. We sent troops, many troops from the London area, actually, with the RCR (Royal Canadian Regiment) detachment here. So, we were very supportive of that. We maintained a presence for many years. But then a few years later, when it was time to go into Iraq, we didn’t,” Farrell said about Canada’s history with U.S involved conflicts in the middle east.
