Mark Carney Takes On Donald Trump and Emerges as a Global Political Star
During his many trips to the World Economic Forum as a central banker and later as an investment executive, Prime Minister Mark Carney made some significant deals, but always in private.
During his first trip as Canada’s prime minister to the annual gathering of billionaires, investors, chief executives and politicians, Mr. Carney stole the show. I was in the group of journalists who traveled to Davos with Mr. Carney. We had been given the text of his speech under embargo to allow us draft reports of our articles that we would adjust to reflect the prime minister’s delivery. As most of you know probably know by now, while Mr. Carney did not refer to President Trump by name, the speech took direct aim at the U.S. leader and his policies. After declaring that the United States had created an irrevocable “rupture” in the world order, Mr. Carney warned that nations like Canada would now have to ally for survival. “The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he said. [Read: Canada’s Prime Minister Says There Has Been a ‘Rupture’ in the World Order] [Read: Canada Flexes on Global Stage With an Eye to Its Own Survival] Mr. Carney, unlike many other leaders, had not attempted to flatter Mr. Trump. But up until Davos, his responses to the president had always been carefully calibrated. So there was a buzz in the small newsroom for the reporters traveling with Mr. Carney after the embargoed text arrived. His gloves, it seemed, were off.
Later, after a trip through security screening and down some exceptionally icy paths, followed by a long wait, we were ushered into the back corner of the main meeting hall to hear Mr. Carney speak. The lighting in the audience section of the hall was dim, and it was difficult to make out who was in attendance. But it was clear that even though the space was arena-sized, it was more an opera crowd than a bunch of hockey fans. Nevertheless, the spectators twice broke into applause after Mr. Carney called out Mr. Trump’s policies, particularly his desire to control Greenland. Then, at the end, they rose for a long standing ovation. “I don’t think I’ve seen many standing ovations in Davos,” Gideon Rachman, a columnist for The Financial Times, said before beginning an onstage interview with Mr. Carney. “That was interesting.” Before I flew to Switzerland, it was anticipated that Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump would have some kind of meeting. That didn’t happen. When we were piling into vans taking journalists to the Zurich airport after a lunch break, Mr. Trump’s helicopter and its escorts were flying in the other direction to Davos. Praise for Mr. Carney’s blunt talk was widespread, both within Canada and outside of its borders. David French, a Times Opinion columnist, wrote that the prime minister had “delivered what might be the most important address of Trump’s second term so far.” [From Opinion: The Carney Doctrine] In his long and rambling speech a day later, Mr. Trump made it clear that he was not among Mr. Carney’s fans. “I watched your prime minister yesterday,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Carney. “He wasn’t so grateful — they should be grateful to us, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States.” [Read: Trump Calls Out Mark Carney’s Davos Speech in Rebuke to Canada] The prime minister had no immediate response. But on Thursday, less than a day after his return and before going into a cabinet meeting in Quebec City, Mr. Carney shot back at the president — again without naming him. “Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security and in rich cultural exchange,” Mr. Carney said in a speech that was largely devoted to domestic issues. “But Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.” [Read: Mark Carney Says Firmly That ‘Canada Doesn’t Live Because of the United States’]
Ever since Mr. Trump was re-elected to a second term, debate in Canada has largely focused on how to respond to things like the tariffs he placed on key Canadian industries and his obsession with making Canada the 51st state. There has been a pervasive view that pushing back too hard might further enrage Mr. Trump and make things worse. But the president’s response so far, aside from a veiled threat to Mr. Carney, has been limited to withdrawing Canada’s invitation to join the “Board of Peace,” a group that Mr. Trump founded to supervise a peace deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and which he is now attempting to turn into a rival to the United Nations. [Read: Trump Rescinds Canada’s Invitation to Join His ‘Board of Peace’] Rather than a punishment, however, the rescinding of that invitation may have come as a relief for Mr. Carney. In Davos, both Mr. Carney and François-Philippe Champagne, the finance minister, seemed uneasy about accepting and said that several details needed to be worked out. Among them, presumably, was Mr. Trump’s suggestion that its members would have to pay at least $1 billion each and the prospect that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia might also join. There remain, of course, many ways that Mr. Trump can continue to lash out at Canada. Above all, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — the free-trade pact known as U.S.M.C.A. — is now under review. But this week, with the world watching, Mr. Carney pushed back against Mr. Trump, not once but twice. And it had the effect of heating both their rivalry and Mr. Carney’s global political stardom. Trans Canada
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at austen@nytimes.com. How are we doing? Like this email?
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