'Irresponsible Not To Prepare': Canada's Mark Carney On 'Risk' Of US Invasion

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he'd looked at "extreme tail risk" when asked by the New York Times about whether he'd taken seriously the risk of US military action against his country.

"I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk," Carney told the newspaper, adding, "That's just risk management." A US invasion is "not a base case, but it would be irresponsible" not to prepare, the prime minister said when pressed about the subject and President Donald Trump's repeated rhetoric about making Canada the 51st US state.

Carney, in the wide-ranging interview, outlined several ways in which Canada is diversifying away from the US in order to reduce its economic and strategic dependence on the US, which, in light of tariffs and other trade actions, the prime minister and other Canadian politicians now see as a risk.

As an example, Carney said Canada will seek to reduce reliance on the satellite broadband services provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX. "Starlink, we will diversify away from, no question," he said.

At the same time, there are limits to the potential breakage. Carney said it doesn't make sense to break up the interconnected autos sector and cautioned in the interview against calls for Canada to use its southbound exports of energy and food as leverage.

Carney also said he expects demand for US dollar alternatives to grow around the globe, partly as a consequence of the Trump administration's "leverage" tactics against trading partners, he told the newspaper.

A global financial system entirely dependent on the greenback is unsustainable, and a multipolar system with multiple reserve currencies would "provide more flexibility," Carney said, according to the report. 

"It's the 'fool me once, fool me twice' point," the two-time former central banker said in the interview. "Once you see that, then you start to think, how do I diversify away?"

Despite the tense relationship, Carney told the paper he is speaking to Trump "frequently," and the two have spoken "a number of times" since trade talks dramatically collapsed in August and each side erected fresh tariffs.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)