While President Donald Trump made news at the World Economic Conference in Davos this week with his demand to be handed Greenland, followed by a rambling speech and the launch of his much derided “Council of Peace,“ Canada’s prime minister was lavished with the kind of praise and positive international attention the American president can only dream of.
According to Washington Post analyst Ishaan Tharoor, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s star has risen to dizzying heights after his speech at which he made the point, “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.”
He later added, “The middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
According to the Post, Carney made a huge impression that led longtime German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger to hail the speech and report, “There are some people who are now saying, ‘why can’t we invite Canada to be a member of the E.U.?’"
Adam Tooze, who was the moderator when Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick answered questions, agreed and admitted, “It was the only one of the leader speeches that I saw that, with weight and moral earnestness, expressed the shock which many of us are feeling here.”
Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, joined the praise, explaining, “We know that it reflects a change in the global order that we’ve almost all seen coming increasingly over the past years, but no major government leader was prepared to actually say it,” and then predicting, “people are going to be thinking back on [the speech] for quite a long time.”
The Post’s Tharoor reported that Trump appears to realize that he was shown up by Carney and lashed out by rescinding Canada’s invitation to the Board of Peace, which Canada had already rejected.