You know the joke: how to throw out 40 drunks Canadian from the pool? Well, you go to the pool and say: guys, get out, please.
For Canadians, it is true that they are a decent people who live in one of the best organized countries in the world, so they do not, it is believed, have too many reasons for nervousness and noise. There are forty or so million of them living in their huge country, they don't cause problems for others or themselves, but they have shown throughout history that they can play hard when needed. In the First World War, 600.000 Canadians took part in battles on the soil of Europe (in the bloody Battle of the Somme, for example), while in the Second World War, as part of the British army, they fought fiercely on land and at sea. In addition, Canada is one of the founding members of the United Nations. Until recently, they lived in good neighborly relations with the United States of America, and it was only in a few literary and filmic dystopias that a scenario in which America and Canada were at war was elaborated (the novel Testimonials Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, for example). And then, as if out of nowhere, a certain Donald Trump appeared, a frivolous and not very smart man (which does not mean harmless, on the contrary), and he began to throw things at the Canadians every now and then, so that they could become the 51st American state (unless, in the meantime, they become Iceland, Greenland, Venezuela or whoever). The Canadians, however, apparently did not find anything funny, and they also did not like the fact that Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister, handled the new situation quite poorly, so he was replaced by a calm banker Mark Carney.
A little less than a year after becoming prime minister, Carney appeared in Davos, Switzerland, among other dignitaries. When he took the podium, hardly anyone expected anything spectacular from that slim and gray-haired 60-year-old. Neatly combed in a slightly old-fashioned way, slightly loosened tie, without a paper in front of him, this Canadian calmly began his speech. And, slowly, a miracle began to happen. With each subsequent sentence, this "ordinary" man gained attention and not only with the brilliant, decisive and courageous content with which he, cleanly and clearly, rejected every blackmail from Trump, but also with the way he spoke. In fact, it was a masterpiece of oratory that, despite great speakers like, say, former US President Barack Obama, is rarely seen. Suddenly, we could imagine Marcus Carnius, so calm, while uttering clear and complete sentences as if he were reading them (and he was not) and looking over the audience (as if he was looking everyone in the eyes), in front of the Areopagus in Athens, in the Athenian square, or in the Roman Senate.
According to the legends, the great sophist Gorgias managed to enchant his listeners with his speeches, or silence the crowd in the square (and then a jealous Socrates appeared, who mocked him wherever and whenever he arrived), just as the great republican Cicero was able to do the same (until Octavian Augustus silenced him by cutting off his head). In the same way, the calm Canadian won over the listeners in the hall in Davos, as well as millions of those who listened and watched him on televisions and their computers. Because in order to hold the podium the way Carney did - he never waved his hand, nor did the amplitude of his voice go above or below the measure he had set himself, he never stammered or made an unnatural pause - in order to be as convincing as Carney was, you have to believe in what you say and you have to be well prepared.
And the story says that Carney prepared his speech on the plane, which should not be doubted, it is a long flight from Canada to Europe, but even the preparation would not have been enough if Carney had not already carried the basic ideas well grounded and solidified. That man simply believes in what he says. (After all, let's just look at the "hourly chatter", as Božo Koprivica said, in the role of the president of all the citizens of Serbia: he doesn't even believe it when he says his name and surname, let alone some ideas - which he doesn't have - not to mention.) Completely concentrated, Carney did not show any spasms in those twenty minutes, neither in his body nor in his eyes, which concentration sometimes causes. And this is the characteristic of great rhetoricians: everything seems natural and easy. After all, just as the dialogues of great writers are unforced and clean, the only thing we forget is that behind all of this are thousands of printed and thrown away pages and who knows how many hours spent on paper.
Mark Carney shone in this dark and dreary world just at the moment when it was necessary to dispel the heavy, dark darkness.
