Carney Pitches Canada to Global Investors as Reliable Alternative to U.S.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is courting roughly 300 executives managing over $120 trillion in assets at a Toronto summit, positioning Canada as a stable, rule-of-law partner as Trump's tariffs strain trade ties.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is making a direct appeal to the world's largest investment firms, casting Canada as a reliable, rule-of-law partner that offers far more than proximity to the United States. Roughly 300 chief executives and senior executives from major global investment firms gathered at the Four Seasons in Toronto's Yorkville district this week for the Canada Investment Summit, an event Carney's government describes as the largest assembly of investment decision-makers ever held in the country.
The investors collectively manage more than $120 trillion in assets, according to the summit's organizers, underscoring the scale of capital Canada hopes to attract as it works to reduce its economic dependence on the United States. Carney said the turnout demonstrated that investors are interested in Canada on its own merits. «Canada is about so much more than being next to the United States,» Carney said at a news conference in Banff, Alberta. «We have what the world wants.»
Carney pointed to Canada's vast energy and critical-mineral resources, its highly educated workforce, and trade agreements that give businesses based in Canada access to roughly 1.5 billion consumers worldwide. «They are coming because of Canada,» he said. «If they wanted to go to the United States, they would go to the United States.»
The prime minister is uniquely positioned to court this audience. He ran the central banks of Canada and England, spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs, and later chaired the boards of Bloomberg L.P. and Brookfield Asset Management. On Monday he met separately with the CEOs of Sydney-based Macquarie Group, whose asset-management arm is the world's largest infrastructure investment manager, and Singapore state-owned Temasek Holdings.
A Canadian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, described the summit as the largest gathering of investment decision-makers ever assembled in Canada. The official cautioned, however, that the event is not expected to produce a rush of deals this week, with the most significant results likely to emerge over the next 12 to 18 months.
The summit comes at a critical moment for Canada. Trade talks with Washington collapsed on Aug. 21, after which President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods and Canada retaliated. Washington then raised the stakes further, announcing bans on some Canadian imports and moving to shut Canadian products out of large, long-term U.S. government contracts.
Trump's tariffs and efforts to shift manufacturing south of the border are undermining what was long one of Canada's biggest attractions to foreign investors: reliable access to the enormous U.S. market under continental free trade. Asked whether Canada could withstand a prolonged period without a trade deal, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Ottawa was prepared to support affected businesses and workers. «We have the wherewithal to support our industries, to support our workers for as long as it takes, with whatever it takes,» Champagne said.
Champagne noted that Carney has set a goal of doubling Canadian exports to overseas markets over the next decade. The government also said Monday it will give priority to tax rulings for investments of $1 billion or more, giving major investors more certainty before they commit capital.
Dominic Barton, the new chair of Invest in Canada and former global managing partner of McKinsey & Company, said concerns that Trump's trade war would keep investors away from the summit have not materialized. «People are here,» Barton said. «I haven't seen an iota of that.»
Barton said Trump's trade upheaval is forcing Canada to become less dependent on the United States and more ambitious abroad. He recalled former Quebec premier Jean Charest suggesting Canadians might one day «thank Trump» for shaking the country out of its complacency. «This is a good jolt,» Barton said. «Let's use it.»
Barton said the U.S. will remain a critical market, with roughly three-quarters of Canadian exports still going south, but argued Canada needs to push much harder into Europe, Asia and other markets.
Carney is urging global investors to look past the trade war and bet on Canada, while pointedly contrasting its rule of law and reliability with an increasingly unpredictable United States under Trump. Investors will find «a country that respects rule of law and a country that is reliable,» Carney said. «That combination is pretty rare in the world,» he added. «And it's an attractive combination.»
Carney sharpened the criticism Sunday, telling Canadian business leaders that Canada's greatest strength was something «that cannot be found on any balance sheet: trust.»
The summit is aimed at matching global capital — including Canada's pension funds, which rank among the world's biggest institutional investors — with major projects in critical minerals, technology, defense, advanced manufacturing and energy. One major investment was announced Monday: Bell Canada said it will quadruple an AI data-center project already under construction in Saskatchewan, creating a pathway to a 1.2-gigawatt facility.
