THE AMERICAN POSEIDON ADVENTURE

January 21, 2026

The Right Honorable Mark Carney

Prime Minister of Canada

Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Canada

                                    VIA Email: pm@pm.gc.ca

Dear Prime Minister:

Listening to your speech at the Davos World Economic Forum, and our president’s rambling, distorted, disingenuous speech, it is clear that you are a person of integrity and intelligence, with a gravitas that we Americans can only admire. Your articulation of The Power of the Powerless was compelling and lucid, in contrast to the international tensions our president has created through his own shortsighted and narcissistic pronouncements.

To the majority of Americans, it is painfully obvious that our president is primarily concerned with his own image. He operates within a purely transactional framework that devalues established relationships, dismisses long-term commitments, and substitutes objective facts with those manufactured within his own mind to justify his behavior. This is not the ethos of most Americans.

You, on the other hand, bring to office a serious and substantial record. You are respected because of who you are and what you have accomplished. Your response to the bullying, baseless, and crude behavior of our president deserves commendation. The judicious and wise use of power requires, as you so clearly model, maturity, principled policy, and respect for those governed.

Canada is fortunate to have you as its leader. Canada has long been a loyal and trusted neighbor and ally of the United States. The behavior of our current president toward your country is obscene and does not reflect how the majority of Americans feel. It is a sad state of affairs that, because of our convoluted electoral process, and, admittedly, because too many Americans took their eye off the ball, we find ourselves saddled with this shortsighted, immature opportunist. If only we could trade places.

Thank you for taking a stand. I know you did so on behalf of Canada and the so-called “middle powers,” but it may also inure to America’s benefit. Bullies respond only to firm resistance. You provided a principled and rational response, one that appears to have caught the bully’s attention. Americans cherish Canada’s friendship and hopefully our relationship can be repaired, even though as you understandably said has been ruptured by our pernicious president.

Sincerely yours,

Robert Detor