Below is the full transcript of the English parts of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks.
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.
[translation] The big boys (Trump, Putin et al) are fighting. The rest of us are gonna suffer.
And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as
inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting
itself. And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for
countries to go along, get along to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to
hope that compliance will buy safety.
Well, it won’t. So what are our options?
[translation] We're all cowering in front of Trump in hopes he won't hit us. This won't work.
In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, wrote
an essay called “The Power of the Powerless,” and in it he asked a
simple question: how did the communist system sustain itself?
And his answer began with a greengrocer.
[translation] Bear with me. I'm going to tell a story about a greengrocer so I sound like an ordinary dude. But it's a Czech greengrocer from 50 years ago, so... not that ordinary.
Every
morning, the shopkeeper places a sign in his window: “Workers of the
world unite.” He doesn’t believe in it. No one does. But he places the
sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And
because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system
persists — not through violence alone, but through the participation of
ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.
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.
Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.
[translation] We gotta face up to the bully now.
For
decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the
rules-based international order. We join 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 varied
rigor, depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.
This
fiction was useful, and American hegemony in particular helped provide
public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective
security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.
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.
[translation] No, really. We gotta face up to the bully now.
Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
[translation] The world is really f^&k'd up
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.
[translation] In case you missed it: Trump is the bully. (See how I put 'tariffs' in there)
You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.
The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have
relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP, the very architecture of collective
problem solving — are under threat. As a result, many countries are
drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic
autonomy in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply
chains. And this impulse is understandable.
A country
that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options.
When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.
[translation] Buckle up, buttercup. Get your fists up.
But let’s be clear-eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less sustainable.
[translation] But don't do it alone. Team up.
And
there’s another truth: if great powers abandon even the pretense of
rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and
interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to
replicate.
Hegemons cannot continually monetize their
relationships. Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.
They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty,
sovereignty that was once grounded in rules but will increasingly be
anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.
This room
knows this is classic risk management. Risk management comes at a price,
but that cost of strategic autonomy, of sovereignty, can also be
shared. Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone
building their own fortresses. Shared standards reduce fragmentations.
Complementarities are positive sum.
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.
[translation] Canada is totally up for teaming up. Who's with us?
Now,
Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up 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 what Alexander Stubb, the
president of Finland, has termed value-based realism.
Or, to put it another way, we aim to be both principled and pragmatic. Principled
in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial
integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent
with the UN Charter and respect for human rights.
[translation] we're not going to be a bully. We won't fight unless we have to.
And
pragmatic in recognizing that progress is often incremental, that
interests diverge, that not every partner will share all of our values.
So
we’re 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.
[translation] Seriously, we're up for teaming up. Even with some weirdos.
We
are calibrating our relationships so their depth reflects our values,
and we’re prioritizing broad engagement to maximize our influence, given
the fluidity of the world at the moment, the risks that this poses and
the stakes for what comes next.
And we are no longer just relying on the strength of our values, but also the value of our strength.
We
are building that strength at home. Since my government took office, we
have cut taxes on incomes, on capital gains and business investment. We
have removed all federal barriers to interprovincial trade. We are fast
tracking $1 trillion of investments in energy, AI, critical minerals,
new trade corridors and beyond. We’re doubling our defence spending by
the end of this decade, and we’re doing so in ways that build our
domestic industries. And we are rapidly diversifying abroad.
[translation] Canada's pretty awesome. As Katy Perry said to Justin: "you're gonna hear me roar."
We’ve
agreed to 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’ve concluded new
strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We’re negotiating free
trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur.
[translation] See, I told you we're teaming up. Watch this space; more to come.
We’re
doing something else: to help solve global problems, we’re pursuing
variable geometry. In other words, different coalitions for different
issues based on common values and interests. So on Ukraine, we’re a core
member of the Coalition of the Willing and one of the largest per
capita contributors to its defence and security.
On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and
Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s
future.
[translation] Hey Donny, back off from Greenland.
Our commitment to NATO’s Article 5 is unwavering, so
we’re working with our NATO allies, including the Nordic-Baltic Eight,
to further secure the alliance’s northern and western flanks, including
through Canada’s unprecedented investments in over-the-horizon radar, in
submarines, in aircraft, and boots on the ground — boots on the ice.
Canada
strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to
achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic.
On
plurilateral trade, we’re championing efforts to build a bridge between
the Trans-Pacific partnership and the European Union, which would
create a new trading bloc of 1.5 billion people on critical minerals.
[translation] Oooh, let's make a Pacific Union thingy. Yes!
We’re
forming buyer’s clubs anchored in the G7 so the world can diversify
away from concentrated supply. And on AI, we’re cooperating with
like-minded democracies to ensure that we won’t ultimately be forced to
choose between hegemons and hyperscalers.
This is not
naïve multilateralism, nor is it relying on their institutions. It’s
building coalitions that work issue by issue with partners who share
enough common ground to act together. In some cases, this will be the
vast majority of nations. 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.
[translation] We'll partner with the right people. In some cases, that's pretty much EVERYONE EXCEPT YOU Donald.
Our view is the middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.
[translation] No, really, I think I said this before, but: we're up for teaming up.
But I’d also say that great powers can afford, for now,
to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, and
the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only
negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We
accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most
accommodating.
This is not sovereignty. It’s the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.
[translation] Oh, you thought you were your own country? Yeah right. We've all just been under Donald's thumb. No more!!!
In
a world of great power rivalry, the countries in-between have a choice:
compete with each other for favour, or combine to create a third path
with impact. We shouldn’t allow the rise of hard power to blind us to
the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity, and rules will remain
strong if we choose to wield it together.
Which brings me back to Havel. What does it mean for middle powers to live the truth?
[translation] Remember the greengrocer? I'm winding things up now.
First,
it means naming reality. Stop invoking rules-based international order
as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is: a system
of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue
their interests using economic integration as coercion.
[translation] Remember: Trump's a bully
It
means acting consistently, applying the same standards to allies and
rivals. When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one
direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the
sign in the window.
It means building what we claim to believe in, rather
than waiting for the old order to be restored. It means creating
institutions and agreements that function as described, and it means
reducing the leverage that enables coercion.
That’s building a strong domestic economy. It should be every government’s immediate priority.
And
diversification internationally is not just economic prudence; it’s a
material foundation for honest foreign policy, because countries earn
the right to principled stands by reducing their vulnerability to
retaliation.
So, Canada. Canada has what the world wants.
We are an energy superpower. We hold vast reserves of critical
minerals. We have the most educated population in the world. Our pension
funds are amongst the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors.
In other words, we have capital talent. We also have a government with
immense fiscal capacity to act decisively. And we have the values to
which many others aspire.
Canada is a pluralistic society
that works. Our public square is loud, diverse and free. Canadians
remain committed to sustainability. We are a stable and reliable partner
in a world that is anything but, a partner that builds and values
relationships for the long term.
And we have something
else: we have a recognition of what’s happening and determination to act
accordingly. We understand that this rupture calls for more than
adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is.
[translation] Canada has it all! Oh, Canada! Check out Nicola's article about this... https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/01/20/Dirty-Math-Trump-Thirst-Oil/
We are taking a sign out of the window.
We
know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia
is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture we can build
something bigger, better, stronger, more just. This is the task of the
middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of
fortresses and the most to gain from genuine cooperation.
[translation] The US Empire is dead. No worries. The Pacific Union thingy will be better.
The
powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to
stop pretending, to name realities, 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.
[translation] JOIN US!
Thank you very much.
[translation]: mike drop. Thanks for the standing-o. Peace out.
