Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with former Labour Party politician Alex White at Trinity College Dublin on June 13 [Emilija Jefremova/Reuters, pool]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 13 Jun 202613 Jun 2026
On the eve of the upcoming week’s Group of Seven (G7) meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has reiterated his vision of a shift away from a world order dominated by superpowers.
Carney delivered his remarks on Saturday at the launch of the De Chastelain Public Lecture series at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Attendees included his Irish counterpart, Micheal Martin.
According to Carney, the world is at a critical juncture, and he appealed to leaders of what he called the “middle powers” to unite and find their collective strength.
“Ireland and Canada are navigating a global rupture, not a quiet transition,” Carney said.
“The post-Cold War world’s rules-based order is breaking down. Multilateral institutions have weakened. Economic integration, from which we have benefitted is being weaponised. The international trading system, which we’ve relied upon for decades, is under threat.”
Carney kept his remarks general. He did not name any countries that were violating the “rules-based” global order, nor did he point a finger at any international counterpart.
But his remarks come at a moment of historic friction between Canada and its southern neighbour, the United States.
A longtime ally, the US has increasingly pressured Canada to cede its sovereignty since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in Washington, DC, for a second term.
Trump has called for Canada to become the US’s “51st state” — a campaign he continued into this month, with a social media post on June 1 — and he has used tariffs to push the country to fall in line with US priorities on trade and immigration.
Both Carney and Trump are expected to attend the upcoming G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, held from June 15 to 17.
Carney’s calls for more collaboration between “middle powers” have found a receptive audience among some G7 members, particularly in the European Union, which is seeking to lessen its dependence on the US amid heightened tensions.
Carney used Saturday’s speech to appeal directly to his European counterparts. He emphasised unity as a response to the go-it-alone mentality some superpowers have adopted.
“Canada, Ireland, and Europe are increasingly and more immediately vulnerable to once-distant threats. And I suggest that amidst this change — amidst this disruption — Canada, Ireland, and Europe can be pivotal, powerful and purposeful: a force for good,” Carney said.
His Trinity College remarks hewed closely to a speech he gave earlier in the year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he debuted his “middle powers” approach.
That speech generated shockwaves by questioning the long-term durability of existing global alliances. It cited violations of international law and the use of global economic integration as a “weapon” to coerce smaller countries.
The path forward, Carney said at the time, was to “build a new order” among the “intermediate powers” of the world, who together could wield as much power as any single state.
In response to that speech, Trump lashed out, using his podium at Davos to denounce Carney for a lack of deference.
“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they’re not,” Trump said at one point.
“Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney, however, returned to similar themes on Saturday, comparing the might of the Canada-EU alliance to that of the world’s largest economies.
“ Together, we are powerful because we have the capacity to act together. Together, we are powerful because we have the capacity to act together. Combined, the population is more than twice that of the United States,” Carney said. “Our collective defence budget is twice that of China’s.”
Since Carney became Canada’s prime minister in 2025, he has pushed to strengthen some of the bonds he mentioned in Saturday’s speech.
In May, Carney became the first non-European leader to join the European Political Community Summit, a forum for building security and economic strength across the continent.
In February, he also successfully oversaw a push for Canada to join Europe’s SAFE Instrument, a loan programme designed to help countries buy critical military defence supplies. Canada is the first non-European country to be part of that initiative, as well.
On Saturday, Carney added that he would like to see the European Union also build its ties with the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement that would ease trade barriers for nearly a dozen countries along the Pacific Ocean, including Canada.
Such an alliance, Carney explained, would create a trading bloc of more than a billion and a half people.
“ The nations that invest in their own capabilities and partner with like-minded allies will multiply their strength,” Carney said.
Citing mutual challenges like global conflicts and climate change, he called on the EU and Canada to draw on their shared history and goals.
“We have developed a unique worldview — a transatlantic worldview, if you will — rooted in a simple but profound conviction: that we are stronger when we are connected, that our prosperity grows when it’s shared, and that we are the stewards of our lands.”
