After Carney's Davos speech, Conservatives ponder how Poilievre can meet the foreign policy moment

OTTAWA — It’s weeks into a new year and U.S. President Donald Trump is everywhere, again.

Not just everywhere, but on stage at a gathering of world elites, where he reinforced to the crowd of political leaders and the investor class that had descended on the Swiss town of Davos of his desires to make Greenland his own.

He also used his World Economic Forum appearance on Wednesday to fire a missive at Prime Minister Mark Carney, warning that Canada ought to act “grateful” for its U.S. neighbour.

Although Carney never spoke the president’s name, he urged middle powers to call out “hegemons” and unite in recognition that the rules-based order they had for so long counted on was no more.

With applause for the prime minister’s words echoing at home so does a question for Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre: how should he respond?

The question of how to confront Trump and Canada’s relationship to the U.S. and the rest of the world has dogged Poilievre for the past year, with signs emerging that the Canadian electorate’s mood was shifting, particularly among those 55 and older, by this time last year.

Although a general election does not appear imminent, Poilievre faces a vote next week on his leadership of the Conservatives, a contest many party faithful expect he will easily pass following his party’s 2025 election loss, after a campaign that was largely waged on the very set of issues that continue to loom today.

For Ben Woodfinden, his former director of communications, how to respond comes down to recognizing the moment as current reality, acknowledging also that Canadians’ attention on Trump ebbs and flows.

“The reality is the next election is probably going to be in the next three years, so there’s a very good chance that Trump is still president whenever the next election takes place,” he said.

“I think confronting that reality that (Trump’s) not just going to go away, it’s unpleasant, and it’s less than ideal, but I think it is reality.”

Woodfinden says Conservatives should not veer from their winning set of issues —affordability, housing, immigration— but must find a way to showcase that Poilievre not only cares about the cost of living, but paint him to be a leader Canadians can imagine on a world stage.

“It’s not about making that the only thing they talk about, but I do think it’s something that he needs to try and demonstrate.”

Poilievre’s response to the speech has so far come in the form of a post on X, where he circulated a post penned by Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner, where she challenged the prime minister to match his words about “the hard realities of a fractured geopolitical system,” with action that, as she wrote, was “conspicuously lacking from Mr. Carney’s speech.”

From delivering on plans to get new natural resource projects off the ground to arming Canada’s military with more personnel and equipment, to eliminating regulatory burdens and showing a path to new trade deals, the MP underscored the need for clear timelines on Carney’s promises, while pointing to the Liberals’ record over the past decade as as only having made things worse.

“The most patriotic Canadian action His Majesty’s Local Opposition can take right now is to hold Prime Minister (Mark) Carney to account for delivering real results, while advancing our own clear, concrete measures to lift Canada out of a decade of depending dependency.”

Poilievre’s office did not respond to interview requests on Wednesday. Before Carney spoke, a spokesman in Poilievre’s office circulated a statement that panned the prime minister’s trip as an “ unneeded indulgence.” 

“His trip will not resolve a single tariff or solve the steadily rising cost of food at home,” Sam Lilly wrote.  

From the time he ran for party leadership until last year’s election, Poilievre has earned cheers from rally-goers and other supporters for lambasting the World Economic Forum as a summit of out-of-touch, private-jet flying elites who pay no mind to the struggles of everyday people, pledging to “ban” any future ministers from any involvement.

When asked whether Poilievre’s position remains the same, and if he would boycott the event himself should he one day become prime minister, his office did not respond.

Ginny Roth, who worked as his communications director during the 2022 leadership race, said what Poilievre had to say about the gathering from many months ago still rings true and can resonate.

She said “a huge opening” exists to counter what she called the “symbolic gestures” that often come from leaders at the gathering by driving home issues like the state of Canada’s military capacity as a NATO member.

Roth sees an opportunity for Conservatives to turn their attention to foreign policy by looking at the approach taken the last time the party was in power under former prime minister Stephen Harper and updating it to fit the circumstances of 2026.

Some voters want to see a “full picture” of what a party leader would look like as prime minister, including on a world stage, she said.

At the same time, she says the party should not deviate from the household finance issues that Poilievre’s voter coalition remains focused on.

Roth said Poilievre’s “passion” over recent years has been on those struggles with foreign policy “further down the list.”

“But I also think he wants to be prime minister, and he understands, and he served in a government where foreign policy was a matter of concern and interest,” Roth said.

Jamie Ellerton, a former staffer in Harper government and principal at Conaptus Public Relations, said those in the federal Conservative caucus would be “wise” to lend their support to Carney’s speech, which he characterized as offering a clear-eyed assessment about where world leaders find themselves and “staunchly pro-Canadian.”

While the party should lay out its own vision, he suggested it should offer support for the Carney government where it can, pointing to how Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have adopted a more collaborative approach with the prime minister.

“I think what you heard in that message is something a Conservative prime minister could have delivered,” Ellerton said of Carney’s Davos speech.

National Post

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