{"id":1399,"date":"2026-04-12T16:36:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/1399\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T16:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:36:05","slug":"canadas-prime-minister-mark-carney-drops-by-to-put-manners-on-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/1399\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney drops by to put manners on the table"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday afternoon at Monocle\u2019s HQ in Z\u00fcrich and our caf\u00e9 is in full swing with the usual mix of matcha mums, family office custodians, neighbours and subscribers. It\u2019s sunny and just a little fresh, so a few regulars have taken up seats outside to enjoy an early negroni or the last espresso hit of the day. No one notices the VW Estate that pulls up out front or the pleasant-looking gentleman who steps out. He wanders back and forth surveying the street. He makes a call. He paces around a bit more, looks up and down the road. A car slows, he nods and walks back to his vehicle and opens the back. He then returns with a stack of tiny traffic cones, like you might have found in a Fisher-Price boxset but only slightly larger. He places them perfectly along the road, a little outside the parking lines. He makes another call and then comes over to introduce himself. He\u2019s an officer with Z\u00fcrich\u2019s Stadtpolizei (city police) and part of the security and traffic control team for movements around The World Economic Forum<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re 10 minutes out,\u201d he says, consulting his phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nine minutes later, there are some blue flashing lights down the street; and 45 seconds after that, a very slow-moving motorcade comes into view. There\u2019s no screeching up to the curb in Seefeld. Goodness no. This being a city run by car-haters, 30km\/h is strictly obeyed \u2013 no matter how easy it might make it for a rooftop assassin. But as we\u2019re soon to find, the slow speeds might be for the locals to blow kisses and throw flowers. After his speech in Davos 24 hours earlier, Canada\u2019s prime minister has the Swiss suddenly swooning and the \u2018Carneyval\u2019 is about to kick off as the PM emerges from one of the lead vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"Canada's<\/p>\n

A few of us are out front to greet him while heads turn inside the caf\u00e9 and Trunk shop. Could it be? Is it him? There are people peering down from the floors above and soon their fellow tenants shuffle down the stairs to confirm the sighting and hope of a picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Mark Carney since his days at the Bank of England and have come to count him as a wise counsellor, a customer (where do you think that olive bag is from?), a calming force and, most importantly, a friend. He makes his way to Trunk with Mats alongside and he takes a read of the rails and shelves. Carney has already done much to up the image of brand Canada on the world stage and thankfully it has involved navy suits, dark ties and elegant footwear. Gone are the comedy socks and poorly cut suits of the Justin Trudeau years and, as is often the case with strong, well-turned out leaders, his personal style is starting to rub off on other members of his cabinet \u2013 albeit a bit slower than he\u2019d probably like.<\/p>\n

\"Canada's<\/p>\n

As we walk into our caf\u00e9 there are Swissies who want photos, he gets nods and thank yous from others and stops to chat to a small contingent of Canadians who might have been tipped off about his arrival. We\u2019ve cleared the lounge for a little chat about the past few days and land on the collapse of public discourse and decency. \u201cDoes the behaviour, the language, of US leadership on both sides of the aisle become the acceptable way to conduct yourself in the world? Were Gavin Newsom\u2019s comments about European leadership needing kneepads necessary? What happened to taking the more elegant high ground?\u201d I ask. At this point, it\u2019s important to note that Prime Minister Carney is visiting Monocle while Trump took to the stage to insult his hosts. We say cheers and I ask for another round to be poured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the Swiss, plus much of Europe and the world in general, weren\u2019t familiar with Carney\u2019s themes before Tuesday, there\u2019s a strong constituency who are not only impressed but hoping that Canada might finally take a bigger role in a G7 and global context. Back in June, Carney tried out his \u201cif we\u2019re not at the table, then we\u2019re on the menu\u201d concept on me and it stuck in an instant. At the podium in Davos, those words rang even truer. Carney might also add that if you get a seat at the table then you speak politely, charm your neighbours, ask questions of those around you, refill glasses and be the consummate host. As he made his way out to the waiting motorcade, he demonstrated just that tact with those gathered to say hello, goodbye and thank you. This is what modern leadership looks like \u2013 warm, assured, human and confident.<\/p>\n

Enjoying life in \u2018The Faster Lane\u2019? Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to browse all of Tyler\u2019s past columns.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThis story originally appeared in The Monocle Minute\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2026Monocle\u2019s free-to-read daily newsletter. Sign up to get insight from Monocle in your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Wednesday afternoon at Monocle\u2019s HQ in Z\u00fcrich and our caf\u00e9 is in full swing with the usual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[17,822,376,111,141,618],"class_list":{"0":"post-1399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canadian-prime-minister","10":"tag-davos","11":"tag-mark-carney","12":"tag-prime-minister","13":"tag-wef"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}