Politics

Nobody would ever call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney a charismatic speaker. A former central banker and hedge fund manager, Carney can be as dry as an insurance salesman explaining an actuarial life table. Inexplicably, he has difficulty with both of Canada’s official languages. When speaking French, he drones in an affectless monotone that can charitably be described as a brave effort by a remedial student. But even in his native English, he stammers when reading from a teleprompter. By contrast, Justin Trudeau, Carney’s immediate predecessor as prime minister and former Liberal Party leader, was a natural politician. Trudeau has star power comparable to John F. Kennedy’s or Barack Obama’s: He is handsome, bilingual, photogenic, and unfailingly charming in his interactions with voters. Trudeau speaks with an effortless fluidity and grace, perhaps acquired during his previous career as a drama teacher. It’s entirely fitting that he is currently dating the singer Katy Perry.

Yet, for all his celebrity aura, Trudeau never gave a speech that made any kind of lasting impact during his near-decade in power. His stolid successor, however, has done just that after less than a year in office. In an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, Carney delivered a stark warning about the crisis of the liberal world order that earned a standing ovation and global attention.

Carney’s speech was a product of an existential crisis for the country he leads. Donald Trump’s second term in office has created anxiety among many US allies, but perhaps none more than Canada, whose economy and national security are unusually tightly integrated with its southern neighbor. The US is far and away Canada’s biggest trading partner, making up 62.2 percent of trade. (The next largest trading partner, China, makes up less than 8 percent.) And since World War II, Canada’s entire national security umbrella has been intertwined with US-led institutions such as NATO and NORAD.