Canadian Ditchley’s conference examines Canada’s role in a Trump-dominated world

This year Canadian Ditchley took the initiative in organising and running their own conference, with support from Ditchley and the participation of Ditchley Director James Arroyo. The conference, entitled Soft Power, Hard Power, Middle Power: navigating a complex and changing landscape, took place at the University of Ottawa and was a timely debate with strong Canadian participation, exploring the impact of US President Donald Trump’s policies on Canada and how Canada could react to them. 

There was much soul searching on where Canada had failed to live up to its own ideals, for example on aid and defence, and this provided much food for thought on similar challenges for the UK. In addition to the main conference, there was a meeting with Anita Anand, the new Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs; an evening’s talk with Canadian technology billionaire Jim Balsillie on the risks of American technology hegemony from his perspective; and the recording of an edition of the CBC Ideas radio programme with conference participants.

“The Canadian Ditchley Foundation’s annual conference reminds us of the importance of hearing new ideas in addressing global challenges,” Foreign Minister Anand posted on X. “I was pleased to contribute to the conference discussions by sharing my vision for Canada’s foreign policy.”

You can read more about the conference here.