Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call at the World Economic Forum for middle powers to band together against economic coercion by “great powers” is winning some cross-partisan support at home and garnering attention worldwide.
Video: Watch PM Carney’s address and Q&A at the 2026 World Economic Forum
The speech — which the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Carney wrote himself — painted a grim picture of a world in which global powers are increasingly using economic dominance for political coercion, and in which countries like Canada cannot continue to pretend that the way things used to be is the way they will ever be again.
“In a world of great power rivalry the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact,” he said, in a speech that drew a standing ovation in the room, and a lot of reaction across Canada.
Provincial leaders praise Carney
“What Mr. Carney is saying is also what I’ve been saying for a long time: the world has changed. We need to redesign our economy, we need to diversify our markets, we need to acknowledge that we can’t claim to have an ally to the south,” Quebec Premier François Legault said at a press conference in Quebec City.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford echoed Legault’s support for Carney’s speech at a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday.
“Before Prime Minister Carney even got elected last year, I was out in front of the Canadian people saying, ‘We have to diversify our trade, we have to find new partners around the world, reliable partners,'” Ford said.
Carney’s speech draws rebuke from Trump
Carney never mentioned either the United States or President Donald Trump by name, but it was clear that Trump’s tariff-backed global economic shakeup was the driving force behind Carney’s sentiments, as he spoke of using “tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”
The speech drew a rebuke Wednesday from Trump, who said in his own address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Canada “should be grateful” to the United States.
“Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” Trump said Wednesday morning.
In Canada, former members of Parliament from across the political spectrum praised Carney’s speech as presenting an accurate picture of where Canada stands on a volatile world stage.
“Put down your partisan swords today and take a moment and listen to this speech and what is being framed. These times are not like any other,” former Conservative MP and cabinet minister James Moore said on X.
“(Carney) says that there is no going along to get along. It is time to stand up. Canada is united at this time in the face of staggering levels of threat,” former NDP MP Charlie Angus said on Facebook.
Calls for action
In a lengthy online response, Alberta Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner wrote that the prime minister’s words need to be accompanied by concrete steps to strengthen Canada’s military and resource development.
“Prime Minister Carney’s speech must not be lauded as a victory in and of itself. Now he must do something much more difficult: deliver concrete, practical details on how Canada’s ruling political class will summon the necessary resolve, resources, and urgency to break through a decade of inertia,” Rempel Garner wrote.
Alberta NDP MP and leadership candidate Heather McPherson said Carney should reject an invitation to join Trump’s “Board of Peace” and should instead join European allies in deploying troops to Greenland.
Questions of values
Lauren Dobson-Hughes, a principal at LDH Consulting who has worked for the U.K. Labour Party and advised former NDP leader Jack Layton, said Carney delivered a “seminal” speech and it’s important to have a G7 leader plainly call out “mobster diplomacy.”
She also said she fears Canada is abandoning its soft-power goals of promoting freedom, equality and democracy in favour of an economy-focused foreign policy that has seen Ottawa sign strategic partnerships with China and Qatar.
“If that’s all we’re doing, just defending jobs and buying military equipment, it’s a downward spiral. Where’s the vision of a world we want to create, where people are equal and free? Because that’s ultimately, surely what we’re working toward,” Dobson-Hughes said.
“I know that sounds a bit naive … but we are in dark and dangerous times. And as Carney himself said, the time for small ideas is over.”
— With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal and Allison Jones in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2026.