Foreign minister Anand declares Canada's 'mission' is to 'lead' amid global disorder

The Liberal government leaned further into its emerging leadership role among the world’s middle powers, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand telling a London audience that now is the country’s time to lead internationally.  

Making the keynote address at the 2026 Chatham House Global Trade Conference on Thursday, Anand said that a country’s greatness stems not just from its domestic successes, but in providing leadership that benefits the world.  

“This is Canada’s mission,” she said in concluding the prepared portion of her talk before a discussion with the audience. “This is our moment to lead.”  

Anand’s talk was largely focused on trade diversification, but also further fleshed out some of the concepts in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January speech at Davos, Switzerland. Since then, Canada has continued to play an unusually activist role internationally, with Carney and Anand emphasizing the potential benefits of middle powers working more closely together, often without American leadership.  

Carney’s speech, delivered at the World Economic Forum, received international attention because it crystallized what many had been thinking: the global order of the last 80 years had experienced a “rupture,” that the old “rules-based international order” is gone, and implied the United States could no longer be relied upon to lead the international alliance of democracies. In a world dominated by “hegemons,” he said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”

In recent weeks, Ottawa has further emphasized Canada’s role in steering that ship of smaller countries, with Carney emerging in a leading role in rounding up international allies on issues such as Arctic sovereignty and energy security.   

After speaking about the importance of pragmatism, Anand seemed to go a step further Thursday in stating that Canada intended to advance from a more international view of the world to adopting more of a leadership role.  

Canada will stand up for its core values, she said, on issues such as human rights, gender equality, the environment and trade diversification even during this “profound moment of geo-political challenges and change.”  

“This is the moment where we need to ensure, as Prime Minister Carney mentioned in his (Davos) speech, that we stand for our principles and we do so individually and collectively with our work together with like-minded countries.”  

In his first year in office, the prime minister has taken a clear turn away from the international priorities of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, who had emphasized spreading progressive values globally. Carney has leaned towards increasing trade and creating counterweights to the superpowers.

Anand also emphasized the importance of collective international action to defend the Arctic and Ukraine and made it clear that Canada intended to do what it can to sell more energy internationally, particularly while supplies have been curtailed in recent weeks because of the war with Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel.  

“This is Canada’s moment indeed to lead in the area of energy in all its forms,” Anand said.

She told the audience that Canada will continue to pursue diversified trade, repeating Carney’s pledge to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade.  

When asked by a member of the audience about Canada’s relationship with the U.S., Anand said the two countries have extensive ties on defence, trade and among citizens, but that the relationship is “complex.”  

National Post

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