Taking the Sign Out of the Window—Now Let’s Build the Foundation

A Critical Reflection on PM Carney’s Davos Speech Through the Love, Care, Share Framework

On January 20, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what may become one of the most significant Canadian foreign policy speeches in a generation. Standing before the World Economic Forum in Davos, he invoked Czech dissident Václav Havel’s famous essay The Power of the Powerless to call out the comfortable fictions that middle powers—including Canada—have maintained for decades.

The greengrocer places a sign in his window: “Workers of the world, unite!” He doesn’t believe it. No one believes it. But he places it anyway—to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along.

Carney’s message was clear: It is time to take the sign out of the window.

I applaud this. I assign this speech to my students. I am grateful that our Prime Minister named reality at a moment when so many leaders are choosing silence.

A Personal Note: The von Trapp Flag

When Carney spoke of “taking the sign out of the window,” my mind went somewhere unexpected—to The Sound of Music.

There is a scene that has stayed with me since the last time I re-watched the musical. Captain Georg von Trapp returns home with Maria from their honeymoon to find a Nazi flag hanging on their house. Austria has been annexed. The Anschluss has happened. And without hesitation, he tears the flag down.

It is a small act. The Nazi regime will not fall because one man removes one flag from one house. But it is everything. It is the refusal to perform compliance. It is the moment when the greengrocer does not place the sign in the window—when he chooses truth over safety.

We know what happened next. The von Trapps had to flee. They escaped over the mountains to Switzerland, became refugees, eventually made their way to America. They lost their home, their country, their life as they knew it.

This is the part we must hold onto: Canada does not want to become refugees.

We do not want to flee over mountains. We do not want to seek refuge elsewhere. We want to stand here, on this land, and build something worth defending.

This is why Carney’s speech matters. This is why taking the sign down matters. And this is why the foundation we build on matters even more.

The von Trapps tore down the flag, but they could not stay. We are tearing down the sign—the comfortable fictions of compliance—but we intend to stay. We intend to build.

So the question becomes urgent: What foundation do we build on?

The Speech’s Vision: Canada as the Bridge

Let me be clear about the strategic brilliance of what Carney proposed. This was not merely a critique of American overreach—it was a pitch to the world.

Canada, he argued, can be the bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union, creating “a new trading block of 1.5 billion people.” In a world fragmenting into fortresses, Canada offers connection. In a world of coercion, Canada offers partnership.

The diversification strategy is ambitious and necessary:

• Comprehensive strategic partnership with the European Union, including joining SAFE (Europe’s defence procurement)
• Twelve trade and security deals across four continents in six months
• New strategic partnerships with China and Qatar
• Free trade negotiations with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines, Mercosur
• Buyer’s clubs for critical minerals anchored in the G7
• Coalition-building on AI governance among democracies

This is Canada positioning itself not as a subordinate seeking favour, but as a connector creating value. “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” Carney said. Canada is setting the table.

Standing with Ukraine and Greenland

As someone who has stood every Saturday since February 24, 2022, at 3:00 PM near Kamloops City Hall holding a Ukrainian flag, I do not take lightly a Prime Minister who declares Canada “a core member of the Coalition of the Willing and one of the largest per-capita contributors to [Ukraine’s] defence and security.”

Words matter. Commitment matters. And Carney’s explicit support for Greenland—”we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future”—directly counters the territorial ambitions now emanating from Washington.

This is what “values-based realism” looks like in practice: principled stands backed by concrete action.

As a Ukrainian-Canadian, I understand something in my bones: when great powers decide that borders are suggestions and sovereignty is negotiable, everyone suffers. I have watched my birthplace endure what happens when a hegemon decides a neighbour has no right to exist.

If such aggression ever came to Canada—and we must now consider what was once unthinkable—everyone would suffer. And Indigenous peoples, as always, would suffer most. They have the most to lose when sovereignty is violated, when land is taken, when the powerful impose their will on the less powerful.

This is why building the right foundation matters now, while we still have the chance to choose.

Love, Care, Share: A Framework for Building

In my teaching, I use what I call the Love, Care, Share framework—a response to the global crises of greed, indifference, and trauma that shape our world. This framework is built on foundations far older and deeper than any policy speech: the Seven Sacred Teachings of Indigenous peoples—Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility, and Truth.

When I hold Carney’s speech up to this framework, I see powerful alignment—and an opportunity to go deeper.

Against Trauma (Love)

Carney critiques transactionalism brilliantly. He warns that “hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.” He calls out the weaponization of economic integration.

The Love dimension asks us to build relationships that are not merely transactional. As Canada creates this web of new partnerships—EU, Indo-Pacific, Global South—what relational ethics guide them? The Seven Sacred Teachings remind us: Love is not a transaction. Partnerships built on genuine reciprocity outlast those built on calculation.

Against Indifference (Care)

Here, Carney excels. He refuses the comfortable silence. He stands with Ukraine. He stands with Greenland. He calls for middle powers to stop competing for favour and start combining for impact.

The Care dimension is about taking responsibility—not looking away when others face aggression. Carney embodies this. It is precisely what I try to teach my students: we are responsible for each other.

Against Greed (Share)

Carney speaks of building “something better, stronger, and more just” from the rupture. The Share dimension asks: as we build these new alliances, as we diversify, as we strengthen our sovereignty—who is included? Whose voice shapes the vision?

This is where Indigenous values can strengthen what Carney is building.

Building the Foundation While Building the Alliances

Here is what I want to suggest—not as critique, but as contribution:

Carney builds his philosophical foundation on Václav Havel—a worthy source, a courageous voice. But Havel is imported wisdom. Canada has wisdom that is of this land.

The Seven Sacred Teachings—Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility, Truth—are not relics of the past. They are living frameworks for relationship, governance, and ethics that have sustained peoples on this land since time immemorial.

As Canada positions itself as a bridge between Pacific and Atlantic, as a middle power offering an alternative to hegemonic coercion, we have an opportunity to ground that vision in something genuinely distinctive.

Consider how Indigenous frameworks could strengthen Carney’s key concepts:

Carney’s Concept	Indigenous Strengthening
“Strategic autonomy”	Relational sovereignty—strength through right relationships, not isolation
“Values-based realism”	Seven Sacred Teachings as operational values, not just aspirational ones
“Variable geometry coalitions”	Circle governance—inclusive decision-making that builds lasting consensus
“Building strength at home”	All our relations—including with the land and its original peoples
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”	Ensuring Indigenous nations are at Canada’s table as we set the world’s

Carney says Canada is “a pluralistic society that works.” Let us make that fully true by centring the voices that have been here longest.

This is not about slowing down the urgent work of alliance-building and sovereignty protection. It is about ensuring that what we build has the strongest possible foundation.

The Urgency of Now

I write this as someone who understands urgency.

Every Saturday for nearly four years, I have stood in solidarity with Ukraine. I have watched people fight for their existence against an empire that denies their right to exist. I have seen what happens when the world is too slow, too cautious, too comfortable.

Carney is right: we cannot wait for the world we wish for. We must act in the world as it is.

But acting urgently does not mean acting without foundation. The strongest house is not built fastest—it is built on rock.

Indigenous peoples have survived centuries of empires. Their teachings have endured colonization, assimilation, and erasure. If we are building something meant to last—a new Canadian posture, a new coalition of middle powers, a new alternative to hegemonic coercion—we would be wise to build on wisdom that has already proven it can endure.

What I Will Tell My Students

I will tell them to watch this speech. (Watch it here on CPAC) https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/world-economic-forum-special-address-by-pm-mark-carney?id=a5157ccf-d1f1-457a-89fd-46a6bd651479

I will tell them it is powerful, necessary, and historically significant.

I will tell them Carney is doing the urgent work of protecting Canadian sovereignty and building new alliances in a world that has become suddenly dangerous.

And I will ask them:

1. How might the Seven Sacred Teachings strengthen “values-based realism”?
2. As Canada builds this Pacific-EU bridge, how do we ensure Indigenous nations are partners in shaping it?
3. What would it look like to present Indigenous values to the world as distinctively Canadian—not as heritage, but as living wisdom?
4. Carney says “nostalgia is not a strategy.” How is honouring ancient wisdom different from nostalgia?
5. Apply the Love, Care, Share framework to Canada’s new strategic posture. What does it affirm? What does it add?

From Critique to Contribution

Prime Minister Carney, you have done something courageous. You have named reality. You have committed Canada to principled action. You have positioned our country not as a subordinate power hoping for favour, but as a bridge-builder offering genuine partnership.

The sign is coming out of the window. The lie of comfortable compliance is ending.

Now we build.

And as we build—rapidly, urgently, necessarily—let us ensure our foundation is as strong as it can be. Let us draw not only on European dissidents and liberal philosophy, but on the wisdom that has lived on this land for millennia.

Love. Respect. Courage. Honesty. Wisdom. Humility. Truth.

These are not obstacles to the urgent work of sovereignty and alliance-building. They are the foundation that will make what we build endure.

The powerful have their power. But we have something too—the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home, and to act together.

Yes. And we have the Seven Sacred Teachings. We have Love, Care, Share.

Let us use all of it.

Discussion Questions for Students:

1. How do the Seven Sacred Teachings (Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility, Truth) complement Carney’s stated values (sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights)?
2. What would “values-based realism” look like if grounded in Indigenous frameworks?
3. As Canada diversifies its partnerships globally, how can Indigenous nations be included as partners in shaping this new direction?
4. How does the Love, Care, Share framework (against greed, indifference, and trauma) apply to Canada’s strategic positioning as a middle power?
5. Carney positions Canada as a bridge between Pacific and Atlantic. What unique value could Indigenous perspectives bring to this bridge-building role?