In the wake of prime minister Mark Carney’s big Davos speech, it has been noticed that there is a conspicuous silence coming from Pierre Poilievre, aside from the fact that he was tweeting misleading things about grocery prices, because his strategy is to keep hammering away at cost-of-living issues while the world is on fire. Apparently, his office was circulating a statement before the speech about how a trip to Davos was an “unneeded indulgence” that wasn’t going to resolve any tariffs, because of course, he doesn’t travel. That hasn’t stopped his various proxies from floating their own attack lines, either insisting that it’s nothing but an empty speech (not entirely untrue), or being utterly dismissive and saying that he needs to be back at the table with the Americans to resolve the tariff issues, as though there is a deal to be had with Trump and his mercurial whims where agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. It’s clear there isn’t, and that is becoming an ever-more irrelevant attack line with each passing day.

Meanwhile, here is a look at some of the global reaction to the speech, but one of the comments that stands out is from Michael Kovrig, who has a warning about how some of Carney’s language is being used, particularly in the way he invokes Havel, and how it sets up a false equivalency between the American-dominated rules-based order with totalitarian communism, and why that could have repercussions.

In pundit reaction, Kevin Carmichael is impressed with Carney’s Davos speech, and finds the biggest lesson in it to be the reminder from Havel that we are not powerless. Seva Gunitsky parses the references to Thucydides and Havel in the speech, and how they apply to the American empire. Althia Raj weighs some of the positives and negatives of Carney’s Davos speech. Philippe Lagassé has questions about the government’s defence and intelligence priorities in the wake of Carney’s speech, because they are greatly affected. And Paul Wells strips the speech of its applause lines and contemplates the core of it, and what some of the inevitable critiques will be.

Ukraine Dispatch

Nearly 60 percent of Kyiv remains without power after attacks on its energy grid, making it their hardest winter yet. An executive of the state grid operator died while supervising repairs at a power facility, but they won’t say how. Ukraine’s new defence minister is planning a sweeping, data-drive overhaul of the military.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney is back in Canada after his whirlwind world tour, and will deliver a speech ahead of his Cabinet retreat in Quebec City.
• At Davos, Trump made some veiled threats to Canada, amidst a rambling “speech.”
• Trump later announced a deal had been struck with NATO’s Mark Rutte about Greenland, and that he would be calling off his tariff threats (for now).
• Maninder Sidhu is calling for expanded trade with India, ahead of more negotiations and a planned visit in the coming weeks.
• The Public Service Integrity Commissioner says they need urgent funding, or risk the collapse of the federal whistleblower system.
• NSIRA says that CSE illegally acquired information on a Canadian subject.
• Digital asbestos researchers worry that we’ll lose out on top talent, while Canadians keep saying that we want more regulations and guardrails.
• Tobacco companies are going to court to push back against the new federal “cost recovery fee” that is being charged on their operations.
• The Federal Court has sent the government’s decision to order the closure of TikTok Canada back to the minister for reconsideration.
• From her state visit to Mexico, Mary Simon says that Greenlanders are looking to Canada for support amidst the threats from the US.
• Doug Ford wants the rest of Canadians to boycott Chinese-made EVs.
• Here is a deep dive into Murray Ruhl, leader of Prolife Alberta, who is so homophobic that he is agitating against democracy itself.
• Stephen Saideman disputes that the threat we face is from American invasion, but rather from coercion that would see us become a vassal.
• Emmett Macfarlane revisits the Secession Reference in light of renewed separatist threats, and finds certain aspects dated, particularly when it comes to First Nations.

Odds and ends:

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