QUEBEC CITY — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday pushed back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that “Canada lives because of the United States,” saying Canada “thrives because we are Canadian” and vowing to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and values amid rising geopolitical pressure.
The exchange followed a tense week that began at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Carney cautioned against great-power coercion of smaller countries without naming Trump. After Carney’s remarks drew wide attention, Trump responded in Davos: “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
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Returning to Canada for a cabinet retreat at the Citadelle in Quebec City, Carney answered directly. “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian,” he said, adding that while the two countries share deep economic, security and cultural ties, “we are masters in our home, this is our own country, it’s our future, the choice is up to us.”
Shortly after, Trump said he was revoking an invitation for Carney to join his newly announced “Board of Peace,” which Trump said would work to maintain a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. “Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you,” Trump posted on social media. Carney had left Davos before Trump inaugurated the initiative.
At Davos, Trump argued Canada receives “freebies” from the United States and “should be grateful,” and touted a multibillion-dollar “Golden Dome” missile defense system he said would be operational before his term ends in 2029, adding that Canada wants to participate. Trump has also floated making Canada the 51st state and this week posted an altered U.S. map online that folded Canada, Greenland, Venezuela and Cuba into American territory.
Carney used the Quebec City forum to set out a competing vision: “We can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history isn’t destined to be warped toward authoritarianism and exclusion; it can still bend toward progress and justice,” he said. “Canada must be a beacon — an example to a world at sea.”
He argued Canada’s pluralism is a strategic asset at a time of populism and ethnic nationalism. “There are billions of people who aspire to what we have built: a pluralistic society that works,” Carney said. “It’s a great country for everyone. It is the greatest country in the world to be a regular person. You don’t have to be born rich, or to a landed family. You don’t have to be a certain color or worship a certain god.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticized Carney’s Davos speech, saying on Bloomberg TV, “Give me a break. They have the second best deal in the world and all I got to do is listen to this guy whine and complain.”
Canada has been largely shielded from the worst of Trump’s tariffs under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as USMCA, but that pact faces a mandatory review this year, a potential flashpoint for the cross-border relationship. Trump has said Carney’s Davos speech showed he “wasn’t so grateful.”
In Switzerland, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2028, said U.S. leaders sent him transcripts of Carney’s remarks. “I respect what Carney did because he had courage of convictions. He stood up and I think we need to stand up in America and call this out with clarity,” Newsom told the forum. “We can lose our republic as we know it. Our country can become unrecognizable.”
Newsom also criticized Trump’s foreign policy, pointing to Carney’s announcement of a deal to bring low-cost, high-quality electric vehicles to Canada from China. “It’s a remarkable thing to break down 80-plus years of alliances,” he said.
For Carney, the message at home was that Canada’s economic resilience and democratic norms flow from its own choices — and will be defended on those terms. “We are Canadian,” he said. “That’s why we thrive.”
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
