Today, Mark Carney is meeting with Vietnamese leader Tô Lâm as part of an official state visit focused, among other things, on trade, investment, energy and climate cooperation.
Normally, fine. Leaders meet leaders. Flags get lined up. Everyone says “economic resilience” several times and somebody gets a much better lunch than I do. But this one caught my attention.
Canada already has a free-trade relationship with Vietnam through the CPTPP. We already do billions in trade. And while I was poking around to see what exactly might be on the table today, I discovered something rather interesting…
Brookfield is already in Vietnam. Not thinking about going, not circling the market. Already there, as in present and accounted for.
On June 9, 2026, Brookfield and Foxconn announced plans to develop up to one gigawatt of wind, solar and battery-storage projects in Vietnam, using Brookfield’s Catalytic Transition Fund.
You know, the fund Carney co-chaired at Brookfield, setting it up, specifically to finance clean-energy projects in developing economies. In plain English? Carney helped steer the fund designed to finance exactly this kind of project, in exactly this kind of country.
And now, conveniently, he’s Prime Minister meeting that country’s leader…
“Conveniently Carney”.. that should be written on the tags inside of all underwear. I swear, this man could fall down a flight of stairs and land in a Brookfield board meeting!
That doesn’t prove anything improper, and I’m not claiming it does. However, it does give me a very specific shopping list for today’s announcements.
I’m watching for Canadian financing, guarantees, climate money, infrastructure commitments, renewable-energy projects, investment funds and anything else involving public money or public backing. If something is announced, I want to know what Canada is putting in, what Canada gets back, and who ultimately benefits.
Oh, and Carney is scheduled for Question Period at 2:15 this afternoon, just a couple hours after meeting Tô Lâm. You’d think they’d have seen enough of each other after spending the last few days at the UN in New York, but apparently Carney is bringing him home like a grade schooler does a stray kitten.
If Tô Lâm ends up in that gallery during Question Period, we’re in for one hell of a matinée performance. Carney already performs Question Period like there’s an invisible camera filming his eventual Nobel Prize documentary. Put a foreign leader in the cheap seats and God knows what happens. By 2:30, he’ll be leaving longer pauses between answers to give everyone a fair chance to applaud properly.
For now, I’m watching the announcements.
Then we’ll follow the money.
As always,
Melanie