Tech Titans To Heated Rivalry: Takeaways From Politico’s Sit-down With Mark Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney has a break-the-glass plan to deal with President Donald Trump: Wait for a new American leader.

In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO on Friday, Carney said Canada could stand by for a new Oval Office occupant before inking a trade deal with Washington, noting that Ottawa has “options.”

It’s part of Carney’s broader strategy for dealing with increasingly unpredictable and at times hostile superpowers like the United States.

The Canadian premier made waves in January when he declared at the Davos summit that middle powers must stand up to global hegemons as a new world order takes shape. This week, he hosted a meeting in Montreal with top EU leaders to discuss a new Europe-Canada alliance as he seeks to take a lead role in that movement.

Fresh off the landmark summit, Carney sat down with POLITICO to discuss a range of topics from how the new alliance with Europe would respond to threats posed by rapidly advancing AI technology to whether he’ll be making a cameo in the next season of “Heated Rivalry.”

Here are our top six takeaways.

1. Talking trade: ‘We have agency. We have options.’

Carney made clear he has no problem waiting for a new administration in Washington to get a favorable deal for Canada.

“We’ll have to, if that’s what it takes,” he said when asked if he was willing to wait for a new U.S. president.

The “most mutually advantageous” deal between the U.S. and Canada is the existing one, Carney argued. Even in an “environment of the new trade policy of the United States” — otherwise known as the ongoing trade war between the two neighbors — Carney said that there are still win-win routes to take.

But as trade talks fail to yield results, the Canadian premier signaled that his country will not give in to U.S. pressure to make concessions.

“We have agency. We have options,” Carney said.

And until the U.S. agrees to a deal that works for Canada, the four Brooks Brothers dress shirts Trump gifted Carney the day before trade talks collapsed in August will remain on the hanger.

“I haven’t had occasion to put on the shirts because we don’t have a mutually advantageous trade deal,” Carney said.

2. Tech titans aren’t the enemy — mostly

The consolidation of power in the hands of a few tech company giants presents serious risks, Carney warned.

“If you’re connected to a satellite system that a billionaire, almost trillionaire, decides to turn off at one moment or not, that’s not a good idea,” Carney said in a not-so-veiled jab at SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who recently caught backlash after his company throttled Starlink connectivity for Ukraine.

That’s why Europe and Canada are “pooling” space assets to bolster redundancy and limit reliance on one company, Carney said. Still, he acknowledged that Canadian and European alternatives to Musk’s rockets won’t be operational for a few years.

Carney also made the case for global artificial intelligence regulation, arguing that tech can’t govern itself.

In the absence of action from groups like the G7 and G20, which he said should be leading the charge but have failed to, “like-minded countries” like Canada and European nations must take up that mantle. That’s what the new so-called alliance for the future aims to do, he said.

Still, Carney, who has previously warned about the risks the advanced technology poses to humanity, didn’t paint AI titans as harbingers of doom. Some AI leaders “do take it seriously,” he said, giving credit in particular to Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for being “at the forefront” of the movement warning about the tech’s potential risks.

3. Count Carney out of a Putin chat

The Canadian premier isn’t interested in meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China.

In the absence of a face-to-face at the November leaders’ meeting, Carney said his message to Putin is: “We’re going to tighten sanctions, get out of Ukraine, stop your war crimes.”

Carney’s rejection of a Putin sit down stands in contrast to an approach some of his European allies have been taking of late. Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre took the unusual step of speaking with Putin by phone earlier this week, which drew some criticism from other European leaders.

That move was “fine” and potentially even “constructive,” Carney said. By contrast, the “variance” in U.S. behavior when it comes to sanctions on Russia and defensive help for Ukraine has “been unhelpful,” he said.

Asked about a recent decision to allow Russian hockey teams to play in international events, Carney slammed the move as “unwelcome.”

The first event Russian teams would be able to compete in is the World Junior Championship set to begin this December — in Alberta.

“I’ll think about it,” Carney said when pressed on his response to the decision.

4. Keeping up with the culture

Carney has yet to see the new movie by Canada’s own Nathan Fielder that’s taking box offices by storm.

“I can see everything, but I haven’t seen the documentary,” Carney said, riffing off of the movie’s title, “You Can See Everything.”

As for whether he’d let Fielder make a documentary on him, he wasn’t ready to commit.

And audiences hoping for a glimpse of the Canadian premier in the upcoming season of the steamy fan-favorite “Heated Rivalry” TV show should lower their expectations. “I think having a Carney cameo might drive down ratings, so I wouldn’t hold my breath,” he said.

5. The other heated rivalry

Carney dismissed any suggestion that he’d hold his tongue for fear of invoking Trump’s wrath — or to gain his favor.

“That way lies madness,” Carney said.

“It’s far better just to be absolutely clear what we’re doing,” he added of his approach to Washington.

That strategy hasn’t won him any goodwill from the White House, as Trump has repeatedly bashed him and threatened to ratchet up the trade war with Canada.

Carney doesn’t care.

“We’re not adjusting for what the U.S. might think, what China might think, certainly what Russia might think,” he said.

6. The far-right around the corner

Carney might have to deal with more challenging partners amid an upswing in support for right-wing candidates across Europe. He’s not too worried about it.

“Part of having values and valuing democracy and freedom and the rule of law is that you have elections and the people decide which direction they want to go,” Carney said when asked about the potential for leaders like France’s far-right Marine Le Pen wielding power following elections next year.

While he said he was ready to work across the table with a figure like Le Pen, he acknowledged that the “range of cooperation for Europe” and the continent’s “priorities” might change depending on the outcome of looming elections across the pond.

Those shifts could be stark. Le Pen has vowed that if she’s voted into office, France would cut financial assistance to Ukraine, a key pillar of action for Kyiv’s allies.

It could also pose a challenge for Carney’s brand-new alliance with Europe. But Carney remains an optimist.

“Working with and having agreement on are two different things,” he said. “But in my experience, it’s best to look to work together.”