Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January.Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters
Scott Brison serves as vice-chair of BMO and vice-chair of the Canada-China Business Council. He is a former cabinet minister in the Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau governments.
For more than two decades, I’ve travelled regularly to China. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s dramatic reboot of bilateral relations has increased both the frequency and the potential outcomes of my trips.
I was present for the Prime Minister’s dinner event in January in Beijing. I’m back in Beijing this week, as is Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
Mr. Carney has also turned around relations with Saudi Arabia and India. Over the past few months, as I’ve travelled the world, interest in doing business with Canada is greater than I’ve ever witnessed.
Mr. Carney has moved decisively to open up global opportunities. Canadian business leaders should seize the moment, build relationships and actively pursue these opportunities.
At the very moment many believed the era of free trade was ending, history has taken an unexpected turn.
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For several years, the prevailing narrative was that globalization had peaked. Populism was rising. Protectionism was returning. The liberal economic consensus – built on open markets, trade, and co-operation – had been fraying.
Then came Donald Trump’s second presidency.
With aggressive tariffs, economic nationalism and profoundly new trade policy in Washington, it seemed at first like the final blow to the global trading system. But paradoxically, the opposite may be unfolding and creating the conditions for what could become the greatest wave of trade liberalization and economic co-operation in our lifetimes – everywhere else.
Across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, countries are accelerating their efforts to deepen trade ties, diversify supply chains and strengthen partnerships with reliable, like-minded economies. Governments and investors alike are searching for stability in an increasingly unpredictable world.
In that search, Canada stands out.
This moment coincides with the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, the foundational text of modern capitalism and free trade. At first glance, it seems an odd time to celebrate Smith’s ideas. But history has a sense of irony, and the new environment may be catalyzing a resurgence of the principles Smith championed.
If the first era of globalization was led by American power and institutions, the next may be more distributed, more pragmatic, and potentially more inclusive.
That is where the opportunity lies, and the responsibility.
The benefits of open markets and liberal trade policies are undeniable. They have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and driven decades of growth. But they have not always been evenly shared. In many countries, inequality widened, communities were left behind, and confidence in the system eroded.
If this new era is to endure, it must place greater emphasis on equality of opportunity, ensuring that the gains from growth are broadly distributed, not concentrated. Economic openness must be paired with social resilience. That is not just good policy; it is essential to sustaining political support for globalization itself.
Canada is uniquely positioned to help lead this next chapter.
We enjoy the most extensive network of free-trade agreements in the world. We are a trading nation by necessity. And we are a deeply global society – nearly a quarter of Canadians were born abroad – giving us natural connections to fast-growing economies abroad.
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But leadership requires more than structural advantages. It requires people.
In Mark Carney, Canada has a prime minister whose experience provides an understanding of both the machinery of globalization and its shortcomings.
More importantly, he has stepped into office at what might be described, borrowing from Winston Churchill, as a “hinge moment” in history – a point at which events could swing decisively in one direction or another.
Canadians have chosen a kind of wartime prime minister, though the war is largely economic.
This battleground is trade, capital, supply chains and influence. The objective is not territorial defence, but economic sovereignty and prosperity.
Mr. Carney and Canada face a defining test – our own “walk with destiny.”
Canada has moved quickly to re-engage globally, rebuilding relationships and expanding partnerships across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It is deepening trade ties and pursuing diversification at a pace that reflects the urgency of the moment.
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At the same time, it is changing the narrative on Canada’s natural economic resources, which are our comparative advantage.
This combination of global engagement and domestic realism is essential.
It means advancing a new form of multilateralism, one that is more agile, more pragmatic and more focused on outcomes than process. Not the rigid, bureaucratic structures of the past, but flexible coalitions of countries committed to open markets, fair rules and shared prosperity.
Canada has an opportunity to fill the leadership vacuum in the global economy, not as a superpower, but as a credible, trusted convenor.
The interest is already there. Around the world, governments and investors are looking for stable partners. They are looking for countries that combine economic openness with political reliability. They are, increasingly, looking to Canada.
But opportunity is fleeting.
Hinge moments like this do not last. They require clarity of purpose and speed of execution. Canada has the assets: resources, talent, stability, global connections, and importantly, trust. Galvanized by crisis, we now finally seem to have the ambition.
The next generation of globalization will not be led by the United States alone. It will be more decentralized, more contested, and, if done right, more inclusive. Canada can lead it. This could be our walk of destiny.