Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is courting some of the world’s biggest investors as he tries to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the United States during an escalating trade war with President Donald Trump TORONTO -- U.S. President Donald Trump wants factories and investment moving south to the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is betting he can make billions flow north.
About 300 CEOs and senior executives from some of the world’s biggest investment firms will descend on the Four Seasons in Yorkville, a tony Toronto enclave of high-end restaurants and designer boutiques, for Carney’s Canada Investment Summit this week. The investors collectively manage more than $120 trillion in assets, underscoring the scale of capital Carney hopes to tap as Canada tries to attract billions in new investment and reduce its economic dependence on the United States. He said the turnout showed investors were interested in Canada on its own merits.
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, putting him very much in his element among the global investors and money managers gathering at the Four Seasons. A Canadian official described the summit as the largest gathering of investment decision-makers ever assembled in Canada, alongside Canadian CEOs bringing projects at varying stages of readiness. But the official cautioned that the summit 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 official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. But the summit comes at a critical moment for Canada. Trade talks collapsed Aug. 21, then Trump imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods and Canada retaliated.
Washington then raised the stakes again, 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 the country’s biggest attractions to foreign investors: reliable access to the enormous U.S. market under continental free trade. Carney and business leaders will urge global investors to look past the trade war and make a bigger bet on Canada.
Carney is drawing a pointed contrast with Trump’s America, pitching Canada as a stable, rules-based alternative to an increasingly unpredictable United States. Investors coming to Canada will find “a country that respects rule of law and a country that is reliable,” Carney said. He said the fund compares investment opportunities in Canada with those around the world.
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