By Ray Rivers
January 22nd, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
“Elections are for later. Vote Conservative, vote Liberal – that choice will come. Put down your partisan swords today and take a moment and listen to this speech and what is being framed. These times are not like any other.” (Hon. James Moore, former minister under Mr. Harper)
It’s not that difficult to imagine: Trump is Putin, America is Russia and Canada is Ukraine. That was the message that our PM delivered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week. Mr. Carney’s address to the world body has been labelled as the most consequential, most important and the best in a long time. But of course not everyone will agree. Certainly Mr. Trump doesn’t.
The speech is attached to this column. But what is more important than the speech is how Canadians are reacting to the new reality of Canada’s relationship with the US. We, with only a few exceptions, have stood four square with our southern neighbour on most issues since the end of the second great war. But then the USA had never in modern times sought to invade and assimilate another nation as it threatens Greenland.…and Canada.
“It is unacceptable for the U.S. to seize the territory of a sovereign country, including by threatening tariffs on other NATO countries.” For that truism he was savaged by the trolls on X, many of whom identified as Canadian and as fellow conservatives – slamming him for sounding too much like a Liberal.
Opposition Leader Poilievre addressing the Greenland issue on X stated the simple fact of international law. “It is unacceptable for the U.S. to seize the territory of a sovereign country, including by threatening tariffs on other NATO countries.” For that truism he was savaged by the trolls on X, many of whom identified as Canadian and as fellow conservatives – slamming him for sounding too much like a Liberal.
Perhaps that was what prompted Mr. Moore’s message. The bigger danger is not that we speak plainly to our American friends, but that we fail to stick up for each other and the country. The danger is that we lose the game because we can’t agree on who should be the captain. Partisanship is ripe in Canadian politics, as we can see from the comments section of just about any newspaper. Moore’s plea is to move on – to get on board with the bigger picture and leave petty politics aside for another day.
Prime Minister Carney at Davos: ‘If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu’
Carney makes no bones about how the world has changed; about how the old rules no longer apply; and how the institutions created to ensure prosperity, peace and order are being ignored by the big and powerful nations. We should not expect to live by the old rules again so must navigate for ourselves without them.
Carney calls for middle nations to cooperate more with each other, points out how years-long benign efforts at integrating economies has led to economic and military subservience. And he points out how that has to change if we are to survive in this new brave world. We are all needed to work towards achieving that goal. There really is no choice if you love your country.
Click HERE to read the speech
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Poilievre’s X Post Canada Joins EU SAFE – Is Canada Next – Planning Against the Unthinkable –
No, Carney does not tell it like it is.
If you go to Amazon and search for books on Disruption in Business, there are pages of books, I stopped counting after a dozen books on this topic. Why do I mention this, well, it’s the way Trump operates and to point out there is nothing new in this approach. It’s only new if your head is in the sand, you don’t read or just lazy – or perhaps want to mislead a population?
Recall from just last year Trump wanted the Panama Canal back. Everyone was upset and freaking out. That was disruption, what he wanted was Panama to simply follow their agreement with the US and remove the Chinese from operating the canal. In the end he got what he wanted, the US did not have to spend any money in the process. I guess many forgot this?
Now, for Carney, Macron and other western leaders. They keep perpetuating fear, uncertainty and doubt for political gain. They don’t have any significant achievements to point to so they need to create a villain, something scary to keep their supporters on edge, hence Trump becomes the perfect foil. Again, nothing new here, a strategy that has been used since the beginning of time, and its despicable, deplorable and disgusting as its manipulation of the highest order.
I guess it’s not difficult to “imagine Trump as Putin”, as Ray puts forward, unless you live in a deranged alternate reality. Or, want to perpetuate fear, uncertainty and doubt.
We just saw the Trump strategy play out on Greenland, (disruption by Trump and fear mongering by western leaders) you can agree or not with the approach, but the bottom line is the US is getting very tired of spending money and lives protecting the rest of NATO. They do have point, and this is punctuated by the fact that the NATO is now working a deal with the US on Greenland, in the absence of Carney at the table, and as the Liberals freak out!
Carney was elected with the mandate to get a deal with the US. All other countries have a deal, we have no deal, job losses, and now our major trading partner well aware of the nonsense going on with the Canadian federal Liberals.
Seriously as the U.S. represents 80% of our export market a percentage that will not materially change in Carney/s tenure however short or long that maybe unless Carney irreparably damages it which is a possibility.
Playing “brinkmanship” with the child tyrant in front of your friendly WEF buddies potentially risking the economic short- and medium-term economic well-being of everyday Canadians ahead of CUSMA is hardly statesmanship. He is playing chicken with our wellbeing.
Carney has only stated the obvious pandering for a spring election in hopes of a majority I personally find this disgusting theatre.
I am active on one of the major projects in the news federally and provincially that are frankly all window dressing. They are already in the works and not advancing any differently than without “pronouncements” and photo ops. What are the achievements after one year?
Ours a critical mineral project like many of others has no financing. “Show us the money’ and nothing is needed like the $45 billion of largely dead money into a dying (in Canada) EV industry or the $24 billion gift to the appraently corrupt Ukraine.
My love of country extends to realism and pragmatism and concern for millions of Canadians that find food and shelter unaffordable along with our collapsing health care and education systems.
It would be a good start if our fickle provincial leader got us on board with the team, instead of whining that somebody else may have gotten an advantage.
Time for Pierre P to show that he is truly a statesman, set aside petty ambitions and join a government of national unity.