By Bob Rae

January 21, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney chose the Davos World Economic Forum as the moment to deliver a speech that will now define the response of the world to the erratic excesses of the “hegemons” — the big powers who guided the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 and all the other key elements of the “rules-based order” we have been living in since that time.

There are four key elements to the approach set out by the Prime Minister in a speech that was remarkable for its candour, precision, order, and combination of straight talk and a practical plan for the way forward. It defines the way forward in a way that matches Louis St Laurent’s 1947 Gray Lecture in 1947.

It was a moment when Canadians were given a clear sense that the Mackenzie King era was over, and that a postwar nation was ready to take its place on the global stage, as a leader in world trade agreements, the United Nations, the modern Commonwealth, and the creation of NATO.

Given the behaviour of presidents Putin and Trump, the inability of most political leaders to find the words to describe the world we are in has been remarkable. This is what makes the Prime Minister’s speech so remarkable.

We are no longer in a free-trade world; our existing institutions have been unable to rein-in aggression, and the big powers are trying to create a world where “the rest” will go on bended knee seeking favour and protection.

Like all such speeches, the PM was talking to the home audience as much as to global opinion leaders. He reminded all of us that, faced with these challenges, Canada has to strengthen its own economy and internal market, focus on our need to build up our defences, and seek to diversify international markets as much as possible. He commended this approach to others, but not in a boastful way.

The fourth key point in the speech was the pitch to other “non-hegemons”. If these countries work together, it is possible to create a stronger bargain. If everyone negotiates alone, they are sure to lose out. The PM also stressed that the existing economic order doesn’t work for everyone, and that countries in the Global South need to know that Western middle powers are willing to work on reforms to fix that.

As Prime Minister Carney flies home to meet his cabinet for a two-day pre-Parliamentary session, he needs to know that his speech has already had an impact in global public perception, surely on its way to having a more substantial one. My former United Nations colleagues have been reaching out since he delivered the speech to applaud his leadership and vision.

The response can be summed up as, “The pressures from Putin and Trump will not change or relent, but at least there is now the potential for a path forward.”

When Prime Minister Carney came to New York last September for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, he was kind enough to say that for five years I had been “Canada’s Voice” on the international stage. I am happy to say that there is no doubt that that title now belongs to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Policy Contributing Writer Bob Rae teaches and writes on law and public policy. He is a Fellow of Massey College, the Munk School at the University of Toronto, the Forum of Federations and Queen’s University. He served as Ontario’s 21st Premier, interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and Canada’s Ambassador to the UN.