DOMINIC CARDY: Canada does not just need to work better; it needs to know what it is working toward

Dominic Cardy, leader of the Canadian Future Party

In Davos, we witnessed a moment that tells us as much about our global predicament as about the profound choices facing Canada and the free world. 

Prime Minister Carney’s address to the World Economic Forum was remarkable, chiefly because he did what too many leaders refuse to do. He acknowledged bluntly that the old world order is gone. As he put it, we are living through “a rupture, not a transition” in international politics, an era where the rules that once constrained great powers no longer hold, and a harsher geopolitical reality is upon us.

This observation is obvious to anyone paying attention. 

The certainties of the last 75 years are dissolving under the weight of rising autocracies, shifting alliances, and economic coercion practiced as statecraft. Where Carney was incisive, and where many of his predecessors were timid, was in naming the problem. The rules-based system of the post-Cold War era is eroding, leaving middle powers exposed to the strategic predations of larger actors. His speech had the unusual distinction, for Davos, of challenging powerful states without euphemism, declaring “middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

That line deserves attention. It captures the truth that the Canadian Future Party has anchored in our foreign policy thinking. The world is not just changing. It is being remade by those who would exploit our openness, our complacency, and our divisions.

But what was striking, almost jarring, in the substance and sequence of the prime minister’s actions was that this global call for the collective defence of liberal democracies came immediately after his return from China, where he signed a major bilateral agreement with Beijing. That juxtaposition highlights a central problem: Analysis without strategy is just rhetoric. You can describe the danger, applaud the diagnosis, and still fail to build the institutions and alliances necessary to confront it.

Carney is right to warn against middle powers going it alone in one on one partnerships with increasingly hostile superpowers. Yet that warning loses force when it is followed by precisely such behaviour. Building an alliance of middle powers requires discipline, credibility, and restraint, not just eloquence.

This is where the Canadian Future Party’s perspective is fundamentally different from that of the old parties. We start from two premises. 

First, the old world has not simply ended; a new one is being actively constructed by our opponents. Second, unless liberal democracies get their act together by reforming their own states as well as defending them from external threats, we will lose the global conflict that is already underway.

Carney understands the first point. He is far less clear on the second. 

His framing still leans heavily on an older conception of diplomacy built around shared values and ad hoc cooperation. Values matter, but values without capacity will not deter authoritarian ambition. Liberal democracies must rebuild their economic resilience, restore state competence, and relearn how to deliver results. 

Without that, no alliance, however well-intentioned, will hold.

The Canadian Future Party has been clear. 

Middle powers can only matter abroad if they are strong at home. That means secure supply chains, domestic industrial capacity, credible defence forces, and governments that can actually build things. It also means democratic reform that restores public trust and competence to the state itself. 

Foreign policy is not separate from domestic policy. It is its outward expression.

Pierre Poilievre’s response to the Davos speech focused on that domestic gap. In his reply, he acknowledged the quality of the prime minister’s rhetoric but pointedly noted that “words do not defend borders, build homes, or supply our military.” In his convention speech, he sharpened that critique, arguing that Canada cannot lead abroad while failing to deliver basic affordability, security, and growth at home.

That criticism resonates because it reflects a real weakness in Canadian governance. But it is incomplete. A domestic scorecard without a coherent global strategy risks mistaking competence for purpose. Canada does not just need to work better. It needs to know what it is working toward.

The Canadian Future Party offers that synthesis. 

We believe Canada must renew itself domestically while consciously aligning with other capable middle powers to shape the emerging world, not simply react to it. That requires strategic patience, shared industrial and defence planning, and a willingness to say no to deals that undermine long term collective strength.

We applaud Prime Minister Carney for naming the rupture and acknowledging that the world has changed. We welcome Pierre Poilievre’s insistence on delivery and accountability. But neither diagnosis nor criticism is enough on its own. Canada needs a forward-looking strategy that integrates domestic reform with a clear, disciplined, and credible international posture.

The new world order is being built and will not wait for us to catch up. If liberal democracies fail to reform themselves and act together, we will not just lose arguments in Davos. We will lose the future.

That is why the Canadian Future Party exists, and why our work matters now more than ever.


Dominic Cardy
Leader, Canadian Future Party