Prime Minister Mark Carney will seek to establish his bona fides as a consequential global leader when he hosts the three-day G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, starting Sunday. The summit—the most significant gathering of world leaders since Donald Trump’s re-election last fall—will, on the surface, aim to build bridges. That’s what leaders typically strive to do at G7 gatherings.
But beneath the familiar choreography will lie a more jarring reality that defines Carney’s worldview and will anchor his foreign policy at this G7 and beyond. U.S. leadership is no longer a given. The global order is fracturing. And advanced democracies like Canada must recalibrate by strengthening economic and defence capacity at home and forging new alliances abroad.
Carney has wasted no time putting his ideas into practice. In just over six weeks since his election win, Carney has begun reshaping the fundamentals of Canada’s global posture with a doctrine that puts primary emphasis on national sovereignty.
Here are some of its core tenets, in Carney’s own words.
Zero-sum world
“The Americans want to break us so they can own us.”
Carney has discarded the moral grandstanding of the Justin Trudeau era in favour of a more hard-nosed assessment of global power dynamics. America increasingly sees the world through a zero-sum lens, where one country’s gain comes at the expense of another. There are winners and losers. That shift not only makes the U.S. an unreliable partner but leaves allies like Canada exposed to the weaponization of its asymmetrical power. This week, Carney described it as the “monetization” of U.S. hegemony.
The response, in Carney’s view, must be a transformation of Canada’s economic foundations by reducing dependence on the U.S., investing in strategic infrastructure, and building up domestic capacity. He calls it “strategic autonomy.” That strength, in turn, becomes the basis for credible global leadership.
Strategic autonomy
In Carney’s view, sovereignty depends on economic self-sufficiency, which is why he’s putting such emphasis on making the economy more resilient. In practical terms, that means making it less dependent on the U.S.
This will require deploying a broader economic toolkit.
Industrial policy is the cornerstone of strategic autonomy, with the government as a proactive architect, shaping key industries and supporting new infrastructure. Carney is promising nothing less than a government-led reimagining of the economy to make it less susceptible to the whims of foreign leaders. Just as consequential may be Carney’s reframing of debt not as a liability, but as an enabler of national strategy. Sovereignty, in this framework, is primarily financed. From defence procurement to industrial and infrastructure scale-up, Canada’s ability to borrow will be central to projecting global power.
Leaderless world
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Carney likes to use this line. It not only illustrates in stark terms the idea of zero sum. But it also underscores the importance of global leadership, which he also sees as a necessary condition for sovereignty at a time when great powers are bypassing multilateral frameworks.
In other words, Canada needs to project enough power and leverage to shape international outcomes. If other nations are making all the decisions, you’re hardly independent.
Practically, as Carney has stated multiple times, this means forging new alliances, reshaping trade policy, and asserting Canada’s role in areas like energy, defence, and critical supply chains.
Defence as strategic leverage
If Canada wants more autonomy and influence, it needs a stronger defence posture.
This week’s announcement that Canada will immediately meet NATO’s 2 percent target is both substantive and symbolic—a signal of seriousness ahead of the G7 and this month’s NATO summit. It’s the price of admission to be at the global table.
Values
While Carney’s foreign policy reflects a pragmatic pivot in the face of Trumpism, it’s far from transactional. Sovereignty itself is framed as a value, as are the defence of international law, territorial integrity, and human rights. All of these principles, in Carney’s view, are under threat.
This is how, for example, he is framing steadfast support for Ukraine and his recalibration of Canada’s approach to Israel.
“When we stand up for territorial integrity, whether it’s in Ukraine or in the West Bank and Gaza, we are also standing up for the territorial integrity of the Canadian Arctic.”
Theo Argitis is The Hub's Editor-at-Large for economics and business. Theo has been a journalist for the better part of three decades, spending much of his…
