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How Mark Carney’s speeches have becomepolitical earthquakes | Ted Widmer

The quiet-spoken Canadian prime minister has spoken unutterable truths

Read full story on The Guardian
Ted Widmer26 Aug 2026, 10:00 amUpdated 2h ago1 min readAmericasUnited States
How Mark Carney’s speeches have become political earthquakes | Ted Widmer

United StatesTed Widmer

The quiet-spoken Canadian prime minister has spoken unutterable truths

Is it perhaps a sign of the times that Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, has become a thrilling orator? A sober banker, he speaks calmly, without many vocal inflections. We expect Canadians to be somewhat flat; even a little boring, and yet Carney has already delivered two remarkable speeches in 2026, and the year is far from over.

The first, at Davos, described a “rupture in the world order”, and “the end of a pleasant fiction”. By that, he meant that the world could no longer depend on the United States to lead the Pax Americana that has largely kept the peace since the end of the second world war.

Is it perhaps a sign of the times that Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, has become a thrilling orator? A sober banker, he speaks calmly, without many vocal inflections. We expect Canadians to be somewhat flat; even a little boring, and yet Carney has already delivered two remarkable speeches in 2026, and the year is far from over.

This report is published with credit to The Guardian. The wire sent a summary; open the original for any extra context. Read on The Guardian

Source: The Guardian · Ted Widmer. Published 26 Aug 2026, 10:00 am.

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