For the past decade, global diplomacy has been dictated by one man’s social media musings. Since Donald Trump first glided into the Trump Tower atrium on his golden escalator, he – and what he has to say – has been the story, throwing red meat to the media and shaping the affairs of the US and the wider world through reactions to his increasingly imperial pronouncements.

But the 47th US president has been off-key of late, and his outbursts on everything from tariffs to the war in Iran have sent his popularity tumbling, not least in Europe where just 8% of Italians have a positive view of him, 10% of Germans and 13% of us in the UK.

As Trump-fever has cooled, one man has stepped forward to fill the ethical void. The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has taken a stand against his bothersome southern neighbour and, in so doing, has reoriented the free world’s moral compass.

Instead of looking to Washington DC for global leadership, global democracies are increasingly looking to the middle power man in Ottawa.

Carney is a banker – or at least that was the world’s view of him until recently. He was governor of the Bank of Canada during the financial crisis of 2008, before leading the Bank of England........

© The Conversation