Prime Minister Mark Carney told leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday that the globe has entered a perilous new age of great power rivalries.
As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to call this week for the annexation of Greenland, Carney warned the assembled leaders against the hope that compliance might buy safety.
"Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited," Carney said in his speech.
"You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination."
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The prime minister said countries like Canada prospered under a predictable, rules-based international order. Carney called that system a useful fiction that was long propped up by U.S. hegemony.
"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," he said.
"And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful."
Carney said the past year has shown that the world is moving toward a system of economic coercion, with great powers pursuing their own interests above all else.
Carney said middle powers like Canada must adapt to this new reality, which is why Canada is looking to expand non-U.S. trading relationships through deals such as those signed recently with China and Qatar.
Carney's speech comes as his critics attack him for not speaking out more forcefully on human rights while engaging with authoritarian leaders like China's President Xi Jinping.
Less than a year ago, Carney identified China as the greatest threat to Canadian national security.
In his Davos speech, the prime minister said Canada is focused on broad international engagement to "maximize" its influence on a turbulent world stage.
"We actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be," Carney said.
Carney said Canada was among the first to hear the "wake-up call" of the new great power era — a reference to the U.S. hitting Canada with tariffs last year and Trump's calls for annexation.
Carney concluded his speech with a call for other middle powers to work together to defend their sovereignty as the United States, China and Russia push to broaden their spheres of influence.
"The middle powers must act together because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu," Carney said.
Trump is scheduled to address the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
There is currently no plan for Carney and Trump to meet formally while in Davos.
Carney will attend events at the World Economic Forum again Wednesday, including an informal luncheon with world economic leaders, before returning to Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 20, 2026.
