NYU Stern professor, entrepreneur, and political-economic commentator Scott Galloway is making a much bigger claim about Prime Minister Mark Carney than simply saying the Canadian leader is handling President Donald Trump well.
During a panel discussion focused on Canada’s accelerating alignment with Europe, Galloway raised the prospect of Carney becoming a Person of the Year-type figure, entering the conversation for a Nobel Prize, and potentially emerging as the second most powerful person in the world.
“We’re in the midst of superpower suicide,” Galloway said.
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His argument is that the US is weakening its own influence by pressuring allies that historically built their trade, security, and investment systems around Washington, creating an opening for countries including Canada to build deeper alternatives elsewhere.
The September 17 episode of Raging Moderates, hosted by Galloway and Jessica Tarlov, centered on what the show described as Canada’s new European alliance and the deteriorating Canada-US relationship.
The immediate backdrop is Carney’s continued attempt to deepen Canada’s relationship with the EU. Canada and Europe have been discussing closer cooperation in defence, critical minerals, energy, artificial intelligence, computing, financial services, payments, and digital trade.
Canada has also moved toward greater participation in European defence infrastructure as Ottawa attempts to reduce strategic dependence on the United States.
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That does not mean Canada is economically leaving the US. The American market remains overwhelmingly important to Canadian exporters, and the two economies remain connected through manufacturing, energy, agriculture, finance, and deeply integrated supply chains.
US goods and services trade with Canada totaled US$872.3 billion in 2025, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
Canadian merchandise exports also remain heavily concentrated in the US, even as Ottawa attempts to broaden its customer base.
That is what makes Carney’s strategy consequential. Canada does not have to replace the American economy for diversification to matter. Future defence contracts, energy infrastructure, mineral-processing investments, technology partnerships, and capital spending can gradually move toward Europe without dismantling existing North American trade.
Galloway’s praise is rooted in a broader criticism of American foreign and economic policy. He has previously used the phrase “superpower suicide” while arguing that the US risks weakening the alliance network that helped underpin its postwar economic and geopolitical power.
In the Carney discussion, the implication is that the Canadian prime minister is benefiting from that vacuum.
Carney entered politics with an unusually international résumé. He previously served as governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England and chaired the Financial Stability Board. The UK government described him when appointing him to the Bank of England in 2012 as exceptionally experienced in central banking, international economics, and financial regulation.
That background has given Carney relationships across European financial and political institutions that most newly elected leaders would take years to develop.
Galloway’s argument appears to be that Carney is now converting that institutional credibility into political leverage.
