In the week after PM Carney's Davos speech, I think the world is responding to Carney's challenge to show courage and deal with reality.
This weekend in the New York Times, Ezra Klein wrote about Carney's courage (gift link)
I think Canada is realizing now that Carney likely won't make another trade deal with Trump because nobody can make a deal with Trump. He will just keep on being crazy.
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This weekend in the New York Times, Ezra Klein wrote about Carney's courage (gift link)
....Trumpism does not hide behind the facade of something high. Part of Trump’s appeal is that he offers his venality as a thuggish honesty: This is what everyone is doing. I’m the only guy willing to admit it. Voters believe that politicians are corrupt. Trump proves them right by flaunting his own corruption; his success confirms their disgust with the system and the need for a champion who has mastered its rules.
This is both a lie and a weakness. It is a lie because Trump’s worldview is not universally shared. Relatively few people are as nakedly transactional or thoroughly corrupt as Trump. And it is a weakness because it creates a hunger for its opposite.
There is a reason Carney’s speech lit such a fire: Carney was, himself, taking a risk. He was, himself, acting against self-interest. He was, himself, showing that he intended to do something more with his power than profit off it. It was a bracing speech, but more than that, it was a brave act. It was the kind of act that Trumpism suggests does not exist, the kind of act that rebuts Trumpism by simply existing.
I am not saying this will go well or easily for Carney — or for other world leaders who choose to take down their signs. Trump is vengeful, and he is right that America can inflict terrible harm on any country it chooses.
But Carney is right that America’s power is, in part, dependent on the willingness of other countries to be entwined with our might. “Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships,” Carney warned, “Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty. They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty — sovereignty that was once grounded in rules, but will be increasingly anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.” This is the path Canada is already following, in part through seeking closer ties with China and Qatar.
The world is built on relationships, not leverage, and relationships are built on reciprocity and respect. It is not Trump’s genius to recognize America’s unused strength; it is his blindness to see that our strength was a function of our restraint.
On his Our Planet substack, Alexander Verbeek writes The Week Europe Stopped Living the American Lie“This is not just strange and hard to understand. It borders on the unthinkable, and that’s why you’re seeing a different response from Europe than before Greenland was center stage.” Trump has radically weakened the U.S. and we won't recover anytime soon, if ever. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
— William Snyder (@profsnyder.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 12:34 AM
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I watched something shift this week. Not gradually, but suddenly, like ice cracking on a frozen lake.
From Scandinavia, we’ve all been tracking Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, his insults to NATO allies whose troops died in Afghanistan, and his bizarre “board of peace” launch at Davos. What struck me wasn’t the threats, rhetoric, or his ideas. We know his tune by now. What changed was the response.
Europe showed it was ready to punch back. And Trump backed down.
While we were accommodating during tariff negotiations, we told him “No” this time. The Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever captured it perfectly in Davos: “Being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else. If we back down now, we lose our dignity.”
That’s the real shift. Not just resistance to Trump’s specific threats, but rejection by the middle powers - Europe, Canada, and other democratic nations - of the entire power dynamic.
....It’s the opening of a new chapter in Europe’s history, and it will come with new challenges. We may see the approach that worked for Ukraine—countries offering security guarantees voluntarily, with no one holding a veto—being extended to other areas. “We should do more with coalitions of the willing,” one EU official told Reuters, “and leave it open for others to follow if they want.”
The E3 group—France, Germany, and Britain—already operates this way on security matters. It allows non-EU states to participate, which matters when other middle powers face similar Trump pressures. As Carney said to warm applause in Davos: “The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
Europe is also toughening its economic policy. Next month brings legislation with “Made in Europe” requirements for strategic sectors and strengthened conditions on foreign direct investment. A European Commissioner told Reuters these provisions “will totally change the European doctrine on those sectors.”
The EU-Mercosur pact, agreed this month, became the largest trade deal in EU history. Commission President von der Leyen says Europe is “on the cusp” of a deal with India. German companies nearly halved their US investments last year. The Dutch ABP pension fund recently significantly reduced its exposure to US government bonds. Within six months, the market value of these investments has fallen by almost 40%. Europe’s trade diversification is happening, not just being discussed....
I think Canada is realizing now that Carney likely won't make another trade deal with Trump because nobody can make a deal with Trump. He will just keep on being crazy.
And either way, with a deal or without, we are better off with Carney defending our borders and selling our products to the world than we would ever be with Poilievre blustering while bending the knee.
Compare and contrast:
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Compare and contrast:
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Next: Poilievre attempts to survive
Later this week the CPC convention will vote on Poilievre's leadership. Here is an excellent analysis by Wilbur Turner at Queerly Beloved titled Defying the Voters: How Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives Are Engineering Survival. It ends with this observation:
Canadian conservatives would do well to remember this too:
....Poilievre and his supporters are betting that doubling down on culture war politics, borrowing tactics from Trump-era Republicanism, and governing internally by base appeasement will eventually overwhelm broader voter resistance. The problem is that this strategy has already been tested. It failed.And here's a good thread:
Leadership reviews are supposed to be moments of reckoning. Instead, this one looks like a carefully staged performance, held on friendly terrain, with a curated audience, designed to ensure that nothing really changes.
Canadians should be paying attention. When a political party chooses defiance over reflection, and grievance over governance, it is telling you exactly what it plans to do if it ever regains power.
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Canadian conservatives would do well to remember this too:
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Next: America cheers as Trump scuttles away from Minneapolis
Alex Pretti's terrible death was the final straw for Americans:
It will never be forgotten.
WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. This is backfiring against Republicans. .. Americans don’t want law enforcement shooting people in the street or arresting five-year-old boys.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/opinion/time...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 7:45 AM
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BREAKING: The Border Patrol's Greg Bovino has been ousted from his role of "Commander at Large"—and Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski could be next to lose their jobs, sources tell @nickmiroff.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
— Yoni Appelbaum (@yappelbaum.bsky.social) ="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uos55pw5gp3l7u2kowz6t6s2/post/3mdeg3pbgok2x?ref_src=embed">January 26, 2026 at 5:39 PM
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And we’re agreed the State of Minnesota never pays for a drink again, right?
— Tabatha Southey🇨🇦 (@tabathasouthey.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 6:19 PM
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sends a fantastic message to CBP rank and file about the wages of loyalty to the administration, though, they have had few more dedicated soldiers than bovino
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) January 26, 2026 at 5:54 PM
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Forget about influencing the US cabinet - maybe progressives should all just try to start feeding their government policies to Brian Kilmeade.
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Even Trump’s liquifying brain retains better political instincts than his various scheming viziers
— Vituperative Erb (@vituperativeerb.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 5:28 PM
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Maine is next, also Philadephia apparently:This has to be a rout. Run the table, run up the score, keep full-court pressing until 10 minutes after the buzzer sounds. bsky.app/profile/dani...
— Bruce Arthur (@brucearthur.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 5:22 PM
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But Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, have taught Americans how to fight too:People of Maine, how can the rest of the country help you stand up the way MN successfully did?
— This Hat Celebrates Alex Pretti (@kenwhite.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 5:25 PM
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The people, united:View on Threads
The people, united, will never be defeated. ✊
— Wil Wheaton (@wilwheaton.net) January 26, 2026 at 8:16 PM
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On his substack, Paul Krugman writes that he is worried about the Midterms:No matter what city ICE chooses next, Minnesota showed how the people can turn back any invasion with sustained, widespread, nonviolent, civil resistance. When we're united, the people are more powerful than any occupying force.
— Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 6:45 PM
....One thing I can safely predict is that Trump and his people won’t admit error. They won’t concede that Pretti was murdered, and that their initial claims about what happened were false. They won’t discipline the ICE agents responsible. They probably won’t call off the siege of Minneapolis, although they have silently backed down elsewhere, notably in Los Angeles and Chicago.And though I am also worried, this is also worth remembering too:
Why will the brutality continue? Because these people are malignant narcissists, whose lives are all about displaying dominance. The sheer horror of what they’ve already done makes it impossible for them to change course, because climbing down after you’ve murdered people and lied about it would be humiliating — and humiliation is their greatest fear.
The big question is what happens when the administration’s determination to keep terrorizing the American people collides with public outrage. One safe prediction is that Trump will try to subvert the November elections: in a clear example of a shakedown, Bondi has demanded that Governor Tim Waltz hand over the Minnesota voter rolls.
Many Americans are grieving over the murder of Alex Pretti, who was simply trying to defend a woman being assaulted by federal officers when he was executed. Beyond the horror of the moment, however, we’re at an existential fork in the road. Let us hope that this country wakes up to the full magnitude of what is happening before more martyrs are offered up as sacrifice.
Finally, ha ha:The same people who cannot control a city of 400,000 are manifestly incapable of cancelling a midterm or ending the peaceful transition of power. Keep reminding yourself that you are a lot stronger than they are.
— Nick (derogatory) ✨ (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 2:39 PM
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And Toronto digs out
Before I visited Toronto, I resented the attitude of our national news media that the weather was never news unless it happened in Toronto.
But then I saw the challenges a city the size and age of Greater Toronto must deal with when massive snow fall makes thousands of narrow streets impassable -- not just "virtually impassible" like our Saskatoon streets are when we get a big snow dump, but actually really blocked and impossible to walk or drive at all -- it would be horrible for any city to deal with. So Toronto, now I get it --what an awful weekend you had and how long will it take to get out again.
I found a few good posts on line and wanted to share them.
Toronto, I salute you!
I found a few good posts on line and wanted to share them.
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Toronto, I salute you!
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