PM Carney has his Finest Day at Davos Forum

 In what will likely be remembered as his “finest hour” Prime minister Mark Carney gave a calm but forceful speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, taking his place as a strong leader of the middle powers of the world.

The impressive position Carney put forward came as U.S. President Donald Trump beat a hasty retreat from his bravado about a military takeover of Greenland and imposing additional tariffs on the European nations who were out of line with his approach.

Critics of Trump observed that the U.S. President took a typical TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) approach, announcing in Davos that he no longer intends to use military force to take over Greenland and will drop his plan to impose the additional tariffs on the eight northern European nations sending small contingents of troops in support of Greenland’s sovereignty.

For his part, Carney told the Forum: “Today, I'll talk about the rupture in the world order, the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints.

“But I also submit to you that 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, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.”

He quoted the Czech dissident Václav Havel, and later president, who in 1978 wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. And in it, he asked a simple question: How did the Soviet system sustain itself?

His answer began with a greengrocer. Every morning, this shopkeeper placed a sign in his window: "Workers of the world, unite!" He doesn't believe it. No one does. But he places the sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along.

Havel called this "living within a lie." The system's power comes not from its truth but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing — when the greengrocer removes his sign — the illusion begins to crack.

For his part, Carney asserted: “Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down…For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection…

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.” Trade rules were enforced unevenly. “And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”

​All this applies to the situation with Greenland, and arguments about global security and the “need” for that island’s rich resources. Carney argued: 'You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination…

 “So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

 “This bargain no longer works...We are in the midst of a rupture,” said Carney.

“Middle powers must be at the table because if they are not, they will be on the menu,” Carney said to laughter among the forum participants.

Without naming Donald Trump directly, Carney said: “More recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited…

“But let's be clear-eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable.
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Just prior to the Davos forum, Donald Trump sent a letter which can only be described as delusional, to Jon Gahr Store, the Prime Minister of Norway:

Dear Jonas,

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS… (Trump apparently did not know that the government of Norway does not select Nobel winners—They are appointed by the independent Nobel Committee)

Trump continued in his letter: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.

For his part, Carney did not stoop to the level of this letter to the Norwegian PM. He continued: “And the question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to the new reality — we must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls or whether we can do something more ambitious…

“We (Canada) are rapidly diversifying abroad. We've agreed a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defence procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months.

“In the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar."

Carney’s mention of China is important domestically. His new trading arrangements with China have proved very popular with the prairie provinces for their sale of canola and the Atlantic provinces for their sale of sea foods such as lobster, but are highly controversial with Ontario where Premier Doug Ford and most of that province’s automotive industry who oppose Canada admitting up to 49,000 new Chinese electric vehicles to this country, with a reduced tariff rate of 6.1 per cent.

Ford was rightfully annoyed that he was not consulted prior to the new arrangements. The same complaint against Carney’s pragmatism has been made by First Nations who have not been consulted prior to several of the Carney government’s initiatives.

Carney continued in his speech: “We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is. The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.

“That is Canada's path. We choose it openly and confidently. And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.

As alluded to by Carney, Canada suffered the early consequences of Trump claiming this country could make a good 51st state for the U.S.A.  These types of comments by the American president prompted a wave of Canadian patriotism and waving of the red and white maple leaf flag. They also gave rise to the use of an old hockey metaphor “elbows up” about dealing with the occupant of the White House.

In just one example of New Brunswickers voting with their feet about the Trump administration, 670,000 fewer New Brunswickers travelled to the state of Maine in
2025 compared to the previous year.
 
Many Canadians will no doubt welcome that PM Carney is speaking up strongly on behalf of this country, and that they can feel less “pushed around” by Trump and his administration.
 
Carney’s eloquent words are important. They are reminiscent of the “finest hour” speech with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave to rally his nation against the Nazi enemy during World War Two. The Against the Flow blog says Bravo, PM Carney.