ADAMS: Common Sense Carney Is Back

When I first wrote about then-interim Prime Minister Mark Carney, I said he was setting a new standard for leadership. Not because I agreed with him on everything, but because he was showing something that has been dangerously rare in Canadian politics: seriousness.

That judgment still holds.

The speech Carney delivered at Tuesday's World Economic Forum didn't pretend the world is fine. It didn't wrap itself in nostalgia or slogans. It didn't sell Canadians comforting lies about a system that no longer works the way we were promised it would. Instead, his speech named reality, and that matters.

Let's be clear about something up front. Being better than Pierre Poilievre is not an achievement. That bar is so low it's in hell. I'm not here to praise anyone for crawling over it. Canadians deserve far more than a leader who simply isn't reckless, angry, or unserious.

What we deserve is leadership that understands the stakes of this moment and doesn't insult people's intelligence by pretending we can slogan our way through it.

That's why Carney's speech mattered.

He said plainly what too many leaders refuse to admit: the old global order is breaking down. Rules are applied selectively. Power is increasingly naked. Trade, finance, and supply chains are being used as weapons. And pretending otherwise—living within the lie, as he put it—is no longer an option for countries like Canada.

That honesty is the foundation of hope.

Hope doesn't come from pretending everything is fine. Hope comes from recognizing what's broken and choosing to fix it.

What I appreciated most in this speech was the rejection of passivity. Carney didn't argue that Canada should simply accept a harsher world, instead saying that middle powers have agency—that we can work together, build resilience, diversify relationships, and act with values without being naïve.

That is a message that resonates working people instinctively. When the system stops protecting you, you organize. You adapt. You build strength together.

Now, let me be equally clear about this: hope does not mean a free pass.

I will always criticize Carney when he does wrong. Because the moment leaders stop being challenged, they start believing they're beyond accountability. People pushing him to do more—to move faster on affordability, on inequality, on climate, on justice—are not being unreasonable. They're doing their job as citizens.

And Carney, to his credit, seems to understand that. This speech wasn't a victory lap. It was a statement of intent, but intent only matters if it's followed by action that actually improves people’s lives.

That's the test.

I would encourage people to watch it for themselves, to engage with it honestly and come to their own conclusions.

For now, Common Sense Carney is back as a reminder that leadership can still be about responsibility, realism, and the courage to tell the truth.

And that's a beginning worth paying attention to. Even as we keep pushing for more.