Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada delivered a stark speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, prompting global political and corporate leaders in the audience to rise from their seats for a rare standing ovation.
He described the end of the era underpinned by United States hegemony, calling the current phase “a rupture.” He never mentioned President Trump by name, but his reference was clear.
The speech came as President Trump doubled down on his threats to take Greenland away from Denmark, saying he would slap fresh tariffs on European powers as punishment for their support of Greenland’s sovereignty.
Global leaders have been scrambling to find a unified response.
“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry,” Mr. Carney said. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”
And he warned, “The middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
He would know.
Mr. Trump started his second presidential term making claims on Canada as the 51st state and threatening Canada’s previous leader, Justin Trudeau, whom Mr. Trump publicly derided, with unilaterally scrapping agreements that have governed the relationship between the neighboring countries for over a century.
He has imposed tariffs on Canada, which is one of America’s two top trading partners along with Mexico, that are crippling some of Canada’s key economic sectors, such as autos, steel, aluminum and lumber.
Mr. Trump’s allies, particularly Steve Bannon, have talked about the benefits of the United States annexing Canada to access its vast Arctic and natural resources, including critical minerals and rare earths.
Mr. Carney chastised other leaders too, many of whom would have been following his speech in Davos, for not standing up for their interests.
“There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along,” he said. “To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won’t.”
Mr. Carney made clear he is choosing a different path.
He wrote his own speech, according to a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the inner workings of his team, which is a departure since speeches of this magnitude are usually prepared by high-level staffers with the leader’s input.
Mr. Carney, a former investment executive who has served as the governor of Canada and England’s central banks, has attended the global gathering about 30 times, according to his office.
Mr. Carney spoke not long after Mr. Trump had posted an altered image on social media that featured a map of American flags superimposed over both Canada and the United States, as well as Greenland.
It highlighted the Canadian prime minister’s motives for flexing his rhetorical muscle on the Davos stage: Canada’s economic and, perhaps literal, survival.
Canada’s integration with the United States runs deep across its economy, defense and culture.
The position of the country in the ongoing Greenland crisis is a little distinct to that of the European powers finding themselves in Mr. Trump’s cross hairs, even if they are all NATO allies.
Asked how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Mr. Trump said, on Tuesday before departing the U.S. for Davos: “You’ll find out.”
Mr. Carney has repeatedly said Canada stands squarely behind Greenland and Denmark, but unlike European powers, did not send troops to participate in the most recent military exercise. President Trump is threatening those nations with fresh tariffs, but not Canada.
On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron of France echoed Mr. Carney, saying that “we do prefer respect to bullies. And we do prefer rule of law to brutality” and decried Mr. Trump’s latest tariff threats as an unacceptable “endless accumulation of new tariffs” used as “leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
Canada exports some 75 percent of its goods and services to the United States; its second largest partner, China, gets less than 5 percent.
The two countries share the world’s longest land border.
American troops exercise and cooperate with Canadians daily, including in the Arctic, and the two militaries work closely together at every level.
The two nations have a joint command for North American air defense. This week aircraft from both countries are at an American air base in Greenland as part of a regular training exercise that the joint air command said had been approved by Denmark. This is a situation that would rapidly grow very difficult for Canada should the United States choose to militarily involve itself in Greenland.
Mr. Carney had been trying to strike an agreement with Mr. Trump over trade, and the two men appear to enjoy a friendly rapport. Even so, talks are frozen (the two men are scheduled to be in Davos on Wednesday, but have no meeting scheduled).
A regular review of a free-trade agreement between the Canada, the United States and Mexico, known as the U.S.M.C.A., is due this year and its fate is very much up in the air.
Mr. Trump has said the United States does not need anything that Canada exports, even as, for example, the majority of the oil the United States imports comes from Canada.
Still, at a moment when the United States is led by a capricious, unpredictable and at times menacing president, Canada is trying to break its longtime dependence on America.
Mr. Carney’s speech came at the end of a week on the road with official visits to China and Qatar. Mr. Carney struck a deal with China to allow a small number of electric vehicles into Canada at a reduced tariff, breaking with U.S. policy that it has followed since the Biden administration, in exchange for China lowering some tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods.
More important, perhaps, China and Canada declared themselves to be in a “strategic partnership” that signals a new era of cooperation with America’s rival for superpower dominance.
A tally of his international travel since first becoming prime minister last March highlights Mr. Carney’s relentless hustle. He has spent nearly 60 days traveling internationally, trying to secure new trade deals. By comparison, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and Mr. Macron have each spent about 40 days on international travel during the same period.
The pace and intensity of Mr. Carney’s global outreach, together with his promise to help Canada survive this epochal shift in American power, has created great expectations among Canadians who elected him last spring.
Even senior advisers, speaking anonymously to talk freely about the risks of this strategy, say there is a chance of under delivering, and acknowledge that no one partner or deal can quickly supplant the overwhelming role the United States plays in Canada’s economy and security.
At home, the opposition Conservative Party has accused him of focusing too much on overseas travel that doesn’t immediately yield results and neglecting domestic issues such as the cost of living and housing. Mr. Carney is one seat short of a parliamentary majority, a deficit that could hinder his ability to govern, even as he wins accolades for his overseas performance.
“There are a lot of voters who wanted to see this from Mark Carney, and expected it from him,” said Ginny Roth, a former conservative adviser and partner at Crestview Strategy, a Canadian public affairs firm. “But there’s also a huge percentage of the electorate, up to 40 percent, that lives in a different world, that doesn’t have the luxury to worry about what Mark Carney said at Davos.”
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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