'We Should Not Underestimate...': Mark Carney Takes On Trump In America — Watch Full Speech

[0:00] Thank you very much for this invitation, and I'm just going to say a few words. [0:05] I'm just going to begin in French, because Canada is a proudly bilingual country, and [0:11] we have our media here. [0:13] Petit résumé de mes choroles. [0:18] Le monde a changé. [0:19] En conséquence, le Canada se concentre sur ce qu'il peut contrôler, consolider nos [0:25] forces au pays et diversifier nos partenariats à l'étranger. [0:29] À cette fin, nous mobilisons 1 000 milliards de dollars d'investissements au Canada au [0:36] cours des cinq prochaines années dans l'énergie, les transports, les données et la défense. [0:41] Des investissements qui permettront de bâtir une économie canadienne plus forte, plus [0:47] concurrentielle et plus résiliente. [0:50] Et pendant que nous consolidons nos forces, il existe plusieurs occasions que le Canada [0:56] et les États-Unis devraient saisir pour collaborer et concorrencer ensemble le reste du monde. [1:03] Le moment est venu d'établir un nouveau partenariat qui redefinira la relation économique entre [1:13] nos deux pays. [1:14] So if you understood that, you can talk amongst yourselves. [1:19] The rest of you will listen. [1:21] Glenn Hutchins, I last spoke here. [1:25] You introduced me, you hosted me, and at the time I reflected, I was at the Bank of England, [1:31] I reflected on the global financial crisis that had just passed and Brexit that was about [1:37] to commence. [1:38] And maybe just with referring to the global financial crisis, may I salute the many contributions [1:44] that Bob Steele made at the U.S. Treasury to help him to address this. [1:50] Thank you, Bob. [1:55] And Bob, when I look back to those times, they were comparatively carefree days because the [2:03] world is undergoing a rupture. [2:08] And there's positives and challenges within this. [2:10] Led by the United States, technological change is accelerating at a pace we have not seen [2:16] in our lifetime. [2:17] The U.S. is transforming all of its commercial relationships, as is its right. [2:22] The world is becoming more divided and dangerous. [2:26] And Canada recognized these developments earlier than most. [2:30] And our response reflects the core lesson that we've taken from these tectonic shifts. [2:35] Namely, that is that we have to take care of ourselves and we have to be true to ourselves. [2:42] Taking care of ourselves means building our strength at home and diversifying our partnerships [2:46] abroad. [2:48] In our first year in government, we cut taxes on incomes, on capital gains, on new business investments. [2:53] We introduced something called the productivity super deduction. [2:56] What you need to know is it gives Canada the most competitive tax rate for new investment in the G7. [3:03] It's half the G7 average and four percentage points below that of the United States. [3:09] We're in the process of catalyzing $1 trillion of investment in Canada over the course of the [3:15] next five years in energy, transportation, data and defense. [3:19] We've launched our most significant regulatory reforms in generations to fast track hundreds [3:25] of billions of dollars of nation-building infrastructure projects. [3:30] And we're realizing our full potential as an energy superpower. [3:36] By the end of this decade, Canada will export nearly 50 million tons of LNG annually. [3:42] By the end of the next decade, we will double that capacity. [3:45] We're advancing a potential pipeline that would carry at least a million barrels of low-emission [3:51] Alberta oil per day to Asian markets while creating an entirely new industry of large-scale [3:58] carbon capture and storage. [4:00] We're building right now the world's first operational small modular reactor in the G7 [4:06] while expanding our world-leading uranium production. [4:10] In the past year, we have signed 56 – 56 – critical mineral agreements with more than 10 countries, [4:18] unlocking more than $18 billion in capital while reducing dependence on foreign chokeholds [4:25] in that critical supply chain. [4:28] We are doubling our electricity grid – that's more than 160 gigawatts of new power, building [4:34] on the lowest-cost power in the G7 and the second-lowest emission power in the OECD. [4:42] That is what an energy superpower looks like when it decides to really act as one. [4:49] Now in parallel, we're diversifying our partnerships abroad. [4:54] We've signed more than 20 economic and security deals across five continents in the past 12 months. [5:01] Our existing free trade accords already provide access to 1.5 billion consumers from the EU [5:09] through to the CPTPP. [5:12] We're now on track to double, double that addressable market this year with new deals [5:18] with India, the ASEAN countries, Mercosur, Thailand, and the Philippines. [5:23] We're the only non-European member of SAFE, which is the European Defense Procurement Initiative. [5:29] Now, one of our core objectives of these partnerships – yes, it's access to markets, but it's also [5:37] to increase our strategic autonomy. [5:42] Because we all live in a world where integration has been weaponized – think critical minerals. [5:49] Because a country that can't feed, fuel, or defend itself is not truly sovereign. [5:55] Because as well, strategic autonomy today extends to building partnerships and capabilities across [6:02] AI, financial payments, space, critical minerals, as I said, and clean energy. [6:09] And we are making progress. [6:12] Because Canada has much of what the world needs and wants from energy to key aspects of aerospace, [6:19] cyber, AI, and quantum. [6:22] Our pension funds are amongst – and some of them are here if you need money – some [6:26] – our pension funds – although I'm not sure the Economic Club of New York needs money [6:31] yet, or has money to – but our pension funds are amongst the most sophisticated infrastructure [6:36] investors in the world, and our banks amongst the most resilient. [6:42] And we are also making progress because our reputation as a reliable, predictable partner [6:49] has rarely been more valuable in a world where transactions are replacing relationships. [6:56] We are blessed with many commodities in Canada, but we have earned the most valuable one, which [7:01] is trust. [7:03] Which brings me to the second element of that lesson, which is being true to ourselves. [7:09] True to our values of taking care of each other and meeting our responsibilities to our allies. [7:15] Canadians take care of each other with a relentless focus on affordability. [7:19] By providing universal childcare, healthcare, education. [7:23] By building, as we are now, affordable housing at scale. [7:28] And we are now doing our share abroad. [7:32] For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are meeting our NATO targets. [7:37] As well, we have already embedded in our fiscal framework – in other words, we provided [7:42] in our budget a path to 4% of spending of GDP in total defense by the end of this decade, [7:50] en route to the 5% NATO schedule in 2035. [7:55] We have launched in recent months our first defense industrial strategy that alone will [8:00] catalyze half a trillion dollars of investment in Canada in the next decade, building on our [8:06] strengths in aerospace, shipbuilding, AI, cyber, and again, quantum. [8:09] We are leading NATO's multinational brigade on the front lines – and they are the front [8:16] lines now – in Latvia. [8:17] We are one of the largest – not the largest – per capita contributor as part of the coalition [8:24] of Willing for Ukraine, standing up for freedom, for democracy, territorial integrity, human rights [8:31] against criminal Russian aggression. [8:33] Let me say that the outcome of this war is not in doubt. [8:39] The only question is the scale of the senseless human suffering that will be inflicted before [8:45] Russia and its enablers accept the inevitable. [8:48] We are stepping up to protect Arctic sovereignty through intensified cooperation with the Nordic [8:54] countries, with Germany, the United Kingdom and working within NATO to make Arctic security [9:00] the priority it needs to be. [9:03] To back that up, we have moved quickly in the past year to build new military operating [9:07] hubs to commission over-the-horizon radar. [9:11] We are going to buy new submarines while adding to the world's largest fleet of icebreakers. [9:17] We are also in the process of creating a new multilateral institution – the Defense Security [9:24] and Resilience Bank – to provide long-term, low-cost financing for defense and resilient [9:31] projects across NATO allies. [9:35] And being true to our values also means continuing to invest in global public goods, in climate [9:40] finance and development finance, even as others are sharply pulling back. [9:45] And it means helping to broker an enormous potential trade pact between the EU and the CPTPP, [9:52] a bridge that would expand the footprint of rules-based trade. [9:55] We are just getting started, but the early results are encouraging. [10:02] Canada is projected to have the second-fastest growth in the G7 this year and next. [10:06] We already have the strongest fiscal position in the G7, and we are reinforcing that advantage [10:12] by cutting 10 percent of the Federal Civil Service, 20 percent of our spending on consultants, [10:18] reducing the annual growth of operational spending from over 8 percent per year, which is where [10:23] it has been for the past 10 years, to less than 2 percent, which is where it has been since [10:27] I came into government and where it will stay. [10:30] Non-U.S. exports are up sharply, and we are on track to double them, which is our target [10:35] over the next decade. [10:36] And foreign investment is now running at twice the rate of our nearest G7 here. [10:42] In some measures, we are ranked as the most attractive country in the world for infrastructure [10:50] investment. [10:51] So let me bring this to a conclusion – that's a false – it's going to take longer than [10:56] a few words, but I'm going to bring it towards a conclusion before the conversation with Nader. [11:01] And I'm going to draw on an insight of the Finnish president, my friend Alex Stubb, who observed [11:08] that people consistently, myself included, do three things – over-rationalize the past, [11:15] over-dramatize the present, and underestimate the future. [11:20] And so when I look back at the right path out of the global financial crisis and the right [11:26] response to Brexit, both of those now look very clear in hindsight. [11:30] But I think as Bob, myself, Tim Geithner and others can tell you, that as being at the [11:36] table during the time, there were relatively few who identified those paths. [11:42] And there were fewer still who had the courage of their convictions to walk them. [11:47] Because in a crisis, the fog and fear are real. [11:50] They always are. [11:52] The right response to these tectonic forces – the global rupture that I described at [11:57] the start – the right response today is clearer than it may feel. [12:02] It's the same. [12:04] In a crisis, fortune always favors the bold. [12:08] Canada got this early. [12:10] We understood the world's change. [12:12] We understand that nostalgia is not a strategy. [12:16] So we're focused on what we can control. [12:18] And that means weaving a dense web of international partnerships abroad. [12:24] That's making us a much stronger, more resilient, more independent country. [12:30] Above all, as you would expect, we're focused on things that are good for Canada. [12:35] This is good for all Canadians. [12:38] But it's also good for the United States because a stronger Canada is a better ally. [12:45] And we know that while Canada and the United States have had our differences over the centuries, [12:54] we have always worked and eventually worked through them because we share values and our [13:01] common interests run deep. [13:02] They run through our economies. [13:06] Canada is America's largest customer. [13:09] We buy more goods from America than China, Japan and Germany combined. [13:13] Those common interests run through our supply chains, where 70 percent of Canadian exports [13:19] are inputs to American cars, homes, aircraft, machinery, finished goods, creating hundreds [13:25] and hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. value add. [13:29] They run through our energy partnership, where, at a time of a global energy crisis, Canada [13:35] provides the United States with reliable power, with critical minerals that help fuel American [13:40] growth. [13:42] Ninety-nine percent of U.S. natural gas imports, 85 percent of electricity imports, 60 percent of [13:49] crude oil imports. [13:52] That is mutual strength. [13:54] Let's be absolutely clear, Canada Strong will help make America great again. [14:01] Examples of where that's true are Legion, where we should work together and compete with [14:07] the world together. [14:10] And to those ends, we have made specific, practical proposals to the U.S. Administration. [14:16] Consider aluminum. [14:19] It's basically electricity in an ingot. [14:22] And Canadian exports to the United States are the energy equivalent of ten Hoover dams. [14:29] With America's growing energy needs because of the incredible transformation here, does [14:34] it really make sense to build the gigawatts here needed to replace Canada? [14:39] On automobiles, Canada is far and away America's biggest customer. [14:43] And an integrated North American market for production is the best and most durable way to [14:49] confront intense, truly intense global competition. [14:53] On critical minerals, with our endowments from potash, nickel, copper, uranium, lithium, cobalt, [14:59] beyond, Canada can be the most reliable supplier that America needs to put affordable food on [15:05] the table, strengthen national defense, and meet the exploding demand to power AI. [15:11] So Alex is right. [15:14] We shouldn't underestimate the future. [15:16] As the United States approaches its 250 birthday, happy birthday, as the most, in advance, as the most. [15:26] But it approaches this moment as the most dynamic, resilient, and inventive country the world has ever seen. [15:33] As a country whose founding values of liberty, democracy, justice, and openness should continue to serve as [15:40] as guides to its future and the future of the world. [15:43] That future should include a new partnership with Canada. [15:48] A true partnership that reimagines cooperation in specific sectors that are deeply challenged by global competition. [15:55] A partnership with a different Canada. [15:58] A stronger Canada. [15:59] A more confident Canada. [16:00] A country that is applying the lessons from past crises. [16:05] A country unleashing its enormous potential. [16:08] A country aggressively translating our belief and openness into dozens of new partnerships. [16:15] A country that's predictable, reliable, and principled in a world that's anything but. [16:20] Thank you very much, and I look forward to the conversation. [16:24] Thank you very much.