How Davos, and Trump, turned Canada’s banker PM Carney into a global political star

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has emerged as a political star.

And it is largely thanks to US President Donald Trump and the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. Most world leaders have learned to flatter Trump or try not to provoke him. But not Carney.

The Canadian Prime Minister took on Trump directly at Davos and called out the US administration to its face. But how did the Canadian economist and banker-turned-Prime Minister emerge as a political star? Let’s take a look.

Carney’s speech at Davos

Carney, speaking at the WEF in Davos this week, laid out a prescription for the world. “We live in an era of great power rivalry — that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must,” Carney said.

“Compliance will not buy safety. The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
Carney’s speech, which did not directly address Trump or the United States by name, was met with a standing ovation.
“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he added.

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Carney is said to have written the 30-minute speech defending Canadian sovereignty and independence himself. He also took aim at Trump over tariffs the US president announced on European allies who refuse his attempts to take over Greenland.

“Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic,” Carney said. “If great powers abandon even the pretence of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate,” he added.

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“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said, pointing to how “great powers” were using economic integration as weapons and tariffs as leverage. “We can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history isn’t destined to be warped towards authoritarianism and exclusion; it can still bend towards progress and justice,” Carney said.

“Other countries, particularly middle powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity and sovereignty.” Carney said Canada must be a beacon and an example to a world at sea. In a time of rising populism and ethnic nationalism, he argued Canada can show how diversity is a strength, not a weakness.

“There are billions of people who aspire to what we have built: a pluralistic society that works,” Carney said. He added that Canada delivers shared prosperity and has a democracy that chooses to protect the vulnerable against the powerful. “It’s a great country for everyone. It is the greatest country in the world to be a regular person. You don’t have to be born rich, or to a landed family. You don’t have to be a certain colour or worship a certain god,” he said.

Carney, a former head of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada who struck a deal with China last week, said it was important for Canada to have a “web of connections”.

“But within those clear guard rails are huge opportunities in energy, both clean and conventional, in agriculture and in financial services — all of which is mutually beneficial.”

Trump fires back, Carney responds

During his own speech in Davos, Trump hit back at Carney, claiming that Canada receives many “freebies” from the US and “should be grateful”. He said Carney’s Davos speech showed he “wasn’t so grateful”. Trump claimed Canada wants to participate in “Golden Dome” — a multibillion-dollar missile defence system he says will be operational before his term ends in 2029.

Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada, also shared an AI image depicting Canada and Greenland as part of the United States.

Carney on Thursday responded to Trump’s comment that “Canada lives because of the United States” by saying Canada thrives because of Canadian values. “Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security and in rich cultural exchange,” Carney said.

“But Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.” Carney said Canada and the US have built a remarkable partnership in the areas of economy, security and cultural exchange, but stressed, “We are masters in our home. This is our own country. It’s our future. The choice is up to us.”

Trump responded by saying that Canada was no longer welcome on his Peace Board, launched on Thursday. He publicly disinvited Carney from the Gaza board after the Prime Minister delivered his high-profile speech on the end of the US-led world order, during which he issued a rallying cry to world leaders to unite.

During his speech, Trump claimed the US would use “excessive strength of force” to acquire Greenland. He demanded “right, title and ownership”, adding: “You can say no — we will remember.”

What do experts say?

Experts have praised the speech wholeheartedly.

Jack Cunningham, a professor of international relations at the University of Toronto, said Canadians responded overwhelmingly to Carney’s speech in part because the Prime Minister dared to push back against Trump and appears still to command the President’s respect.

“For a long time, every other leader has tried to treat Trump as if he were a difficult grandfather you had to manage,” Cunningham said. “There’s a sense of pride among Canadians that Carney is the leader who has been able to confront Trump. We just hope now that we’re no longer alone.”

“Leaders in other Western capitals have alluded to ‘dangerous departures’ Trump has taken from norms, but they always return to the possibility that he can be appeased or accommodated. Carney has exposed that as simply inaccurate,” Cunningham told The Guardian.

“Carney is the first major Western leader to acknowledge the reality. A lot of leaders abroad are looking for somebody to set a direction. And this speech is planting a flag.” Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations, pointed the finger at countries rather than institutions like the UN.

“Superpowers — like Russia and the United States — have decided they’re going to take the law into their own hands,” he told The Guardian. “The Prime Minister was clear in his message: you don’t abandon those institutions, and you don’t give up on them. But you do need to recognise that in the real world they’re very challenged. Too many countries are breaking all the rules and asking everybody else to break those rules.”

Laura Stephenson, a political science professor at the University of Western Ontario, said, “Canadians will feel a sense of pride — and possibly some concern — because our Prime Minister has been so blunt. Carney is displaying courage by saying these things so publicly, and there will be pride that the global reception to his speech has been largely positive.”

James Moore, a former Minister of Industry under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, posted a clip of Carney’s speech while calling on people to “put down your partisan swords today and take a moment and listen to this speech”.

Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative Member of Parliament from Alberta, wrote in the National Post that Carney’s speech “rightly named the hard realities of a fractured geopolitical system and the urgent need for middle powers like Canada to step up with resolve and realism”, and called on him to follow through with action.

With inputs from agencies