Carney Canada closes Toronto summit with call for new institutions
carney canada closed the 2026 Global Progress Action Summit in Toronto on Saturday, May 9, 2026, with a speech that urged new institutions and a reworking of old ones. He told the audience that Canada needs to respond to affordability, immigration and artificial intelligence with "new solutions".
Toronto summit audience
The summit drew ministers Anita Anand, Melanie Joly and François-Philippe Champagne, along with Pete Buttigieg and Magdalena Andersson. Carney used the closing address to argue that the loss of control many people feel over those issues has fed a politics of grievance that is dividing people worldwide.
He tied that argument to the language he used at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said the international rules-based order no longer works and that middle-power counties must build new coalitions. In Toronto, he quoted Marshall McLuhan on today’s "age of anxiety" caused by "trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools."
Carney’s policy examples
Carney pointed to his government’s search for trade deals in Europe and beyond as U.S. tariffs create pressure on Canada’s trade ties. He also cited the Build Canada Homes agency, which he said was created to build thousands of homes on federally owned land.
He added that the government is willing to accept hard realities, including using all sources of energy, including some gas, while moving toward cleaner and more affordable energy systems. Carney also highlighted the Liberals’ newly announced sovereign wealth fund, saying it will finance nation-building projects and give regular Canadians who invest a share of the profits.
Obama event on Friday
The summit, organized by Canada 2020 and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, hosted former U.S. President Barack Obama in a private event on Friday. Carney’s closing message cast the Toronto gathering as a call for progressives to answer politicians who seek to destroy and dismantle by building.
He said, "We have to take risks again," and added, "Because in a crisis, fortune favors the bold." He closed by saying, "We can’t match them by being timid imitations of them. We can’t answer them by pining for an old order that’s not going to return" and, "It can only be answered by positive action, by building that which comes next."
