By David McKinnon

February 4, 2026

In Davos last month, Mark Carney bluntly laid out the geopolitical rupture that has transformed the global order. In Quebec City two days later, he seemed reluctant to be equally frank with Canadians about what this means at home.

The prime minister’s Davos speech unfurled uncomfortable truths about the end of the postwar international order, the “harsh reality” of the world we are in and the need for “intermediate powers” like Canada to build a new order that preserves our values and openness while managing the predations of great powers.

Mr. Carney galvanized resistance to the excesses unfolding on the global stage. The speech drew widespread support in Canada and laid the groundwork for the prime minister to speak honestly to Canadians about what this means for us as a country and what we, individually and collectively, need to do to meet the moment.

Many have seen Mr. Carney’s Davos speech as the most consequential for Canada and its place in the world since Louis St. Laurent’s Gray Lecture in Toronto in January 1947.

That speech deftly drew on Canada’s history and common values to articulate an active place for this country in a new world. But Mr. St. Laurent was delivering it as the external affairs minister of a country that had just played a significant role defeating a formidable fascist menace.

In contrast to today, the world emerging in 1947 was about post-autocracy promise for Canada rather than an autocratic existential threat.

If Mr. Carney had wanted timelier inspiration for his message to Canadians at this moment of enormous gravity, he might have read The Task Ahead, the 1941 missive to Australians from their prime minister, John Curtin — known as the “wartime newspaper article that changed Australia forever.”

The Task Ahead was an op-ed published in the Melbourne newspaper The Herald and reprinted in other major Australian dailies on December 27th of that year, 20 days after Pearl Harbor and the start of the war in the Pacific.

It was a moment when a once-comfortable and complacent, resource-rich country that had prospered as an outpost of a powerful global empire faced an existential threat from a rupture in the world order.

In Canada today, we are not in a hot war, but we are in a war for our future.

Like Mr. Carney in Davos, Mr. Curtin wrote about the world as it suddenly was, not as it had been. He acknowledged the profound upheaval underway and the need to look elsewhere — to the United States instead of a besieged Britain — to secure Australia’s future.

“Without any inhibitions of any kind,” he wrote, “I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom.”

And the article, far from reassuring Australians that life could continue uninterrupted and unchanged, was a firm, rational explanation of the need for everyone to be part of the war effort, being clear about the “immense change” they faced:

“All Australia is the stake in this war. All Australia must stand together to hold that stake.”

In Canada today, we are not in a hot war, but we are in a war for our future. In Quebec City on January 22nd, Mr. Carney could have galvanized the nation at a time of great hazard. Instead, he sounded more like a candidate.

There was an awkward effort to draw on elements of Canada’s history to find meaning for today, but the result was more about reassurance than mobilization.

Canadians were told again that “diversity is our strength”, although Mr. Carney could have articulated more clearly the common ground Canadians share as a legacy of centuries of conflict, pluralism, accommodation, and development: a secular new world experiment that is inherently pluralist, open, and inclusive.

Instead, there was essentially a list of positive achievements along the road to Canada becoming broadly successful. This was not the call to arms made in Davos brought home to a domestic audience.

It was hard to see in the Quebec speech expectation that all Canadians (not just their government) are part of the effort to overcome our serious economic and security challenges, including the social cohesion issues that are pulling at our national fabric (separatism, growing intolerance, foreign interference).

Our future security and prosperity are not just about significantly increased defence spending, large projects and trade diversification. They are also about serious reform at home to ensure our dynamism, prosperity, and resilience.

The IMF report last week suggesting interprovincial trade barriers cost 7% of GDP is a clear reminder of the work to be done on that file. Other protected sectors should not be immune, especially given their impacts on cost of living for Canadians and our competitiveness.

Expanding exports to new markets requires innovation (this is where our diversity clearly is a strength), retaining talent, and attracting private-sector investment.

There are going to be winners and losers as we pursue meaningful reform and resilience (and look for funds to pay for our ambitions). Our political class should talk openly about that and how they plan to manage it.

Integral to all this is a clear understanding of what is of value in Canada that is worth the pain of hard work and change and defending our interests at home and abroad. Even in a pluralistic society, there are core values we can expect to share with our fellow Canadians.

In Davos, Mr. Carney compellingly explained the end of the old world order and the need for middle powers like Canada to step up.

Now is the time for Prime Minister Carney and his government to be frank — and detailed — about the road ahead and the contributions expected from Canadians in this generational work to ensure our security and prosperity.

More than anything, it needs to be clear that Canadians can reasonably expect results, and that these will require commitment, effort, and even sacrifice from each of us, not from just our government.

David McKinnon is a former Canadian diplomat who served in Bangkok, Canberra, New Delhi, and in Colombo, as Canada’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He is a senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.