I ended my last editorial by referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to China last January, where mutual strategic relations agreements were signed between the two countries. I also made mention of the forceful speech delivered by Mr Carney in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, about the international balances governing the world today. Mr Carney said these are rocking the world and are putting countries on edge, warning that matters might soon get out of control.
In fact, Mr Carney’s speech in Davos offered a powerful, detailed analysis of the current global scene. This scene is the outcome of US dominance, and the hesitation of its allies, in the EU, East Asia, and even Canada itself, in objecting and standing up to the US. None of them resorted to forming alliances among themselves or with the other superpowers to resist US hegemony.
Today, I present excerpts of Mr Carney’s bold speech, many parts of which were met with approbation from delegations representing countries attending the WEF. Following are excerpts from the speech:
“It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can and the weak must suffer what they must… And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along, to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it won’t.
“Friends… 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. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.
“This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct, we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But 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… You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration… And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy… When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.
“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. Now, Canada was amongst the first to hear the wakeup call leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture. Canadians know that our old comfortable assumptions that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid… And our new approach rests on engaging broadly, strategically, with open eyes. We actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be… Since my government took office, we’ve agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining the European defense procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 trade and security deals on four continents in six months. The past few days, we’ve concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We’re negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines, and Mercosur… On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future. Our commitment to NATO’s Article 5 is unwavering.
“[We should be] building coalitions that work issue by issue with partners who share enough common ground to act together… What it’s doing is creating a dense web of connections across trade investment culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities… The middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
After going through Mr Carney’s powerful speech, let me present a reading into a documentary offered by Brazilian journalist and researcher Pepe Escobar on the legacy of the US Canada relations, which shows the US’s historic appetite to pounce on its neighbour Canada. Mr Escobar’s documentary held the title: “The moment Canadian public opinion shifted towards distrust in US strategic intent”. Following are excerpts from Mr Escobar’s documentary:
“For decades, the boarder between the US and Canada was described as the longest undefended border in the world, a symbol of ultimate trust. But as I travelled from the corridors of power in Ottawa to the resource rich plains of Alberta, I’ve sensed a chilling wind that has nothing to do with the Canadian winter. It’s a quiet structural shift in the Canadian soul. Have you ever felt that the person you trust most is suddenly looking at your home, not as a sanctuary, but as a warehouse for their own survival? This is the reality facing Canadians today.
“Now let’s look at the moment the mask fell. It wasn’t a single event, but a realisation. For over a century, Canada played the role of the quiet neighbour; the reliable provider of energy, minerals and moral support. But we are entering an era where US intent is no longer about mutual prosperity, it’s about unilateral extraction. The “America First” doctrine wasn’t just a slogan; it was a warning that the great white north was being recategorised from an ally to a strategic reserve. This script will deconstruct how Canadian public opinion moved from fraternal trust to a calculated defensive distrust.
“We are talking about the survival of a sovereign nation in the shadow of a declining but increasingly hungry empire. To understand this shift, we must apply a surgical historical lens… The economic tethering that began with the 1988 Free Trade Agreement, and later Nafta, created a dangerous dependency. Canadians were told that integration meant security; they were told that as long as they fuelled the American machine, the machine will protect them. But machine learning analysis of economic data from the last decade reveals a predatory pattern. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, and more recently during the global supply chain collapses, Washington didn’t look at Canada as a partner to be saved. It looked at Canadian resources as a buffer for American volatility.
“For the average Canadian…the question shifted from how do we grow together, to how do we protect ourselves from them? Trust is replaced by transaction. The Canadian public began to realise that the US strategic intent wasn’t to lead the world, but to consolidate its border into a fortress, and Canada was simply the northern wall of that fortress, expected to pay for its own confinement.
“When a Canadian looks at a map of their country, they see a sovereign nation. When a US strategic planner looks at that same map, they see unclaimed territory that must be managed by Washington to prevent adversaries from gaining a foothold… The Canadian public is observing the rise of BRICS, plus the expansion of the Shanghai cooperation organisation, and the decoupling of the East from the West. They see that while the US is obsessed with sanctions and conflict, the rest of the world is building infrastructure.
“The American dream has been replaced by the American risk… Canadians want stability. They want a predictable future for their children, and they are realising that the US strategic intent is currently too chaotic to provide that… It’s the sound of a nation quietly looking for the exits, seeking new partners in the Indo-Pacific, and trying to shore up its own sovereignty before the next storm hits Washington… It is a massive change in the geopolitical landscape of North America that Washington is too arrogant to see. They assume Canada will always be there, a loyal boy scout following orders.”
This is a fateful relationship shaped by the cumulative impact of events spanning more than a century. However, when President Trump went so far as to suggest that Canada could become the 51st American state, it proved to be the final straw.
Watani International
6 February 2026
