Janyce McGregor · CBC NewsNov 03, 2026
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s oft-stated determination to keep his government focused on what Canadians can control could be tested today, as he meets with leaders from the 55 other member countries of the Commonwealth in Antigua.
As he boarded his flight with his wife Diana on Monday, Carney gestured as if he couldn’t hear reporters yelling for clarification on where things stand following his conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Trade negotiations could return to a full boil, but for now they remain on a back burner while the White House focuses on the verdict about to be rendered by American voters in their midterm elections.
The future of the Canada-U.S. relationship hangs so heavy over the Carney government’s agenda that it could be hard to focus on anything else. But this week’s Commonwealth talks are the first in a series of multilateral summits this month where Canadian officials will pursue alternative partnerships in trade, security and diplomacy.
Here are five things to watch for:
1. Push to double intra-Commonwealth trade
The Commonwealth has three main priorities leading up to 2030: democratic resilience, economic resilience and environmental resilience.
On that first priority, ministers, including Foreign Minister Anita Anand, met Sunday to welcome the restoration of an elected government in Gabon, the central African country which had its membership partially suspended following a military coup in 2023.
But the main focus at this summit is trade partnerships: specifically the association’s ambition to lower trade barriers and double trade between member countries by the time they meet for their next biennial summit.
That dovetails perfectly with the Carney government’s attempt to pivot away from the U.S.
“I think people don’t realize the economic clout of the Commonwealth. There’s almost a trillion dollars of trade,” said Arif Lalani, a former diplomat who served as a senior official the last time a Canadian prime minister attended the Commonwealth Summit, in 2022.
“There are studies which show that it’s cheaper to do business between Commonwealth countries because we have the same practices, same language, generally the same set of regulations. So it’s definitely a place to pursue the economic diversification agenda,” Lalani said.
His fear, however, is that the Commonwealth’s “relevance is growing faster than its capacity to deliver.”
Leaders need to get more outcome-oriented on trade, he said. He agrees with Carney’s efforts to expand this focus to defence and security co-operation too.
At a time when conflicts over choke points like the Strait of Hormuz are restricting global trade, “Commonwealth countries have a lot of coastline, they have strong navies, and so I think there’s something that can be done to increase maritime co-operation,” Lalani said.
2. Evolving Caribbean relationships
This is Carney’s first trip to the Caribbean as prime minister.
That diplomatic deficiency will be addressed this morning in a bilateral meeting with this year’s Commonwealth host, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, followed by a working breakfast Canada is hosting for all the Caribbean leaders attending this year’s summit.
While not a complete gathering of CARICOM leaders, officials briefed reporters that this breakfast is a chance to discuss trade and investment, climate action and regional security.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Diana Fox Carney are met by a greeting party as they arrive in Antigua. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
Vandana Kattar, who worked in the prime minister’s office under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, says Carney’s approach so far makes sense to her.
“Multilateralism is important to him,” she said. Carney went after some of the bigger pieces of his puzzle first, she reckons — pursuing the “low-hanging fruit” of a closer relationship with Europe, attempting to resolve tariff tensions with China.
“Those are big pieces of the puzzle that he’s been able to put together,” she said. But he also needs to fit smaller pieces into that puzzle, like nurturing Canada’s relationships in the Caribbean, “otherwise that doesn’t complete the whole picture.”
3. Climate finance commitments
“You can’t go to the Caribbean countries and not talk of climate resiliency,” Kattar said. “They’re the ones impacted the most.”
Canada’s already contributed $4.65 million over three years to the Commonwealth’s climate finance access hub to help small island states. It’s also made a bigger $13-billion commitment to support all developing countries adapt to the consequences of climate change — like stronger and more frequent hurricanes — over the next five years.
Source: CBC News