THIS IS HUGE: Mark Carney just revealed he’s been quietly preparing his country for the possibility that Trump could order military action against Canada, and he’s still refusing to back down from standing his ground.
In a wide ranging interview with the New York Times, Carney laid out something remarkable: he’s spent the past year systematically reducing Canada’s reliance on the United States for critical technology, from satellites to fighter jets, specifically to make his country less vulnerable to American threats.
“There’s certain things, once you’ve seen them, you can’t unsee them,” Carney said.
Read that again. A sitting prime minister, openly and calmly explaining how he prepared his country for the worst case scenario, while still keeping the door open to a real relationship with Trump.
Carney said he’s approaching this the way he approaches everything, as careful risk management.
“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,” Carney said. “That’s just risk management. That’s not a base case, but it would be irresponsible not to” prepare.
And he’s not hiding from Trump either. Carney revealed the two leaders have actually spoken frequently, even after trade talks collapsed last month.
“From my perspective, we have a good relationship in the sense of we can pick up the phone and talk to each other about issues,” Carney said. “He’s direct. I’m direct in terms of where positions are.”
Carney also pushed back on Trump’s tariff war directly, rejecting the idea of breaking apart the deeply integrated U.S. Canada auto industry.
“We think it doesn’t make sense,” Carney said plainly.
He’s also standing firm on energy, refusing to weaponize Canada’s oil and electricity exports to the U.S. even under pressure to do so, because he believes in being a reliable partner no matter what.
This is what real leadership under pressure looks like. Calm, prepared, and completely unwilling to be pushed around.
