Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared that decades of deep economic integration with the United States — long considered a cornerstone of Canadian prosperity — have become a vulnerability that his government must now urgently address. In a ten-minute video address released on Sunday, Carney warned that the world had grown "more dangerous and divided" and that Canada could no longer afford to rely on a single foreign partner for its economic security.

"Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become weaknesses," Carney said. "Weaknesses that we must correct." He pointed directly to the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, which he said have hit workers in Canada's auto and steel industries particularly hard, while broader uncertainty is causing businesses to hold back investment. Carney compared current US tariff levels to those last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and stressed that simply waiting for Washington to change course was not a viable strategy. "Hope isn't a plan and nostalgia is not a strategy," he said.

In response, Carney outlined an agenda of economic diversification: attracting new foreign investment, doubling Canada's clean energy capacity, reducing internal trade barriers between Canadian provinces, increasing defence spending, and pursuing trade agreements with other countries. He has already sought closer economic ties with nations including China as part of this pivot. At one point in the address, Carney held up a toy soldier depicting General Isaac Brock, the British commander who repelled a US invasion during the War of 1812, signalling that Canada has successfully faced external pressure before. "The situation today feels unique, but we've faced down threats like this before," he said.

Carney, who previously served as governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England before entering politics, has consistently taken a firm public stance on what many Canadians see as unwarranted pressure from the Trump administration — including repeated suggestions that Canada should become a US state. His remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where he condemned economic coercion by great powers, drew a sharp rebuke from Trump. "Canada lives because of the United States," Trump said at the time. There was no immediate White House reaction to Sunday's address.

The speech comes shortly after Carney's centre-left Liberal Party secured a parliamentary majority in special elections earlier this month, giving his government greater political room to manoeuvre. A scheduled review of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement is set for July, adding urgency to Canada's diplomatic and economic calculations. "We can control what happens here," Carney said. "We can build a stronger country that can withstand disruptions from abroad."