Canada’s prime minister just declared the end of the world as we know it

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026. | Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

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Canada’s prime minister delivered a blistering and remarkable speech at the World Economic Forum this week, essentially declaring the end of the world as you and I have known it.

Since World War II, Mark Carney told the crowd in Davos, Switzerland, global politics have largely adhered to a system of norms that prioritized shared prosperity and cooperation. But as President Donald Trump lays waste to those norms, long-time US allies — Canada included — are taking steps to counter America’s influence, even after Trump’s current term.

It’s hard to overstate just how new and strange that is: America’s nearest neighbor, and closest ally, calling for the development of a new world order that sidelines the US. “When historians look back at this era, this speech by Mark Carney will be seen as an inflection point,” wrote Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a New York Times journalist.

The address is worth reading or watching in full, which is something I have said of… maybe three speeches in my career. But because that would be a lot to put in your inbox, I’ve instead asked four of my colleagues from Vox’s policy and politics team to explain the big highlights here. In today’s edition, they answer the question: What does Canada — and the rest of the world — want from the new world order?

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canada’s prime minister declared that the system of international rules and norms that’ve been in place since World War II aren’t working anymore — and that “middle powers” like Canada should stop pretending that they are. Tension between the US and its European and Canadian allies has been ratcheting up for months. What’s special about this? What’s different?........

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