Canada in the G20: a guide for Model G20 delegates

If you are assigned Canada at a Model G20, you represent a country with a long G20 record. Its finance minister chaired the forum in its first two years, it hosted a leaders' summit in Toronto in 2010, and it held the G7 presidency in 2025. In 2026 it has also been in a trade dispute with the United States, which holds this year's G20 presidency. This guide uses official sources as of mid October 2026.

At a glance

• Government (2026): capital Ottawa; in the Governor General's words, "a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy", and a federal state. The Prime Minister is head of government.
• Prime Minister (2025): Mark Carney, sworn in on 14 March 2025.
• Population (2026): 41,798,407 on 1 July 2026, a preliminary Statistics Canada estimate.
• Economy (2025): GDP of about US$2.32 trillion (World Bank). The currency is the Canadian dollar.
• G20 origins (1999): Finance Minister Paul Martin chaired the new forum for its first two years.
• Summit host (2010): the G20 Toronto Summit, 26 to 27 June 2010.
• G7 (1976 and 2025): member since 1976; hosted the 2025 summit at Kananaskis, Alberta.

Canada's G20 story

The G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto says the G20 "was formally created at the September 25, 1999, meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers", was "chaired for its first two years by Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin", and that "Canada was supportive".

The 2009 Pittsburgh summit agreed "to have a G20 Summit in Canada in June 2010". Toronto was the fourth leaders' summit, after Washington, London and Pittsburgh. Its declaration said advanced economies' fiscal plans would "at least halve deficits by 2013", and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said leaders would "extend the Washington standstill for another three years", a pledge against new protectionist barriers. No future Canadian presidency has been announced: the 2025 Johannesburg declaration names the United States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea as hosts for 2026 to 2028.

What Canada wants from the G20

Trade and diversification. At the G20 finance meeting in Asheville in September 2026, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said "Canada has what the world wants and increasingly needs", naming critical minerals, energy and potash, and backed "the trade diversification Canadians are seeking". At the Milwaukee trade meeting, trade minister Maninder Sidhu stressed "open, predictable and rules-based trade" and raised "the weaponization of food through coercive trade actions", forced labour in supply chains and "structural excess capacity and production".

Energy, climate and minerals. Canada's 2035 commitment, submitted to the UN in February 2025, was "a target to reduce emissions by 45-50% below 2005 levels by 2035", on the way to "net-zero emissions by 2050". Check whether it has been revised since. In October 2026 Carney said "Canada has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become a global energy superpower" and listed an oil pipeline, Pacific Link, as a project of national interest. The same release says Ottawa is working with Alberta on the Pathways Project, a carbon capture project. If asked how these fit together, answer in the government's own words. The G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan was issued at Canada's Kananaskis summit in June 2025.

AI and health. Launching a National Council on Artificial Intelligence in October 2026, Carney said "Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms." At Johannesburg in 2025 Canada announced "a $1 billion pledge to the Global Fund" (Canadian dollars).

Alliances and groupings

• G7: member since 1976; 2025 was its seventh presidency.
• NATO: one of the 12 founding members in 1949.
• OECD and APEC: a founding member of both.
• Commonwealth: a member since 1931.
• Trade: CUSMA with the United States and Mexico, which Minister Dominic LeBlanc says "remains fully in force until 2036"; the CPTPP, whose partners include Australia, Japan and Mexico; and the WTO since its establishment.

Canada also works with G20 partners in smaller formats, such as the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership, adopted at Johannesburg in November 2025, and what Carney called a "new strategic partnership" with China in January 2026.

Canada and India

Relations were badly strained from September 2023, and the two governments give opposite accounts of that dispute, so treat it as contested. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Carney at the G7 outreach session at Kananaskis in June 2025, where they agreed to "restore stability". High Commissioners returned in 2025, and an October 2025 joint statement recorded consensus on "a New Roadmap for Canada-India relations".

Carney visited India from 27 February to 2 March 2026, which India's Ministry of External Affairs calls "the first bilateral visit to India by a Canadian Prime Minister since 2018". The two sides signed terms of reference for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), aiming to "conclude the talks by end-2026". The trade target differs by source: India's brief says "USD 50 billion by 2030", the joint statement "CAD 70 billion / INR 4.65 lakh crore by 2030". In March 2026, according to India's brief, a CAD 2.6 billion commercial agreement was concluded between Cameco and India's Department of Atomic Energy for the long-term supply of uranium, and India "endorsed the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan". India's brief puts 2025 goods trade at CAD 13.55 billion and counts an estimated 392,810 Indian students in Canada at the end of 2024, the largest group of international students.

Recent developments

The US tariff dispute is contested, and each account is its own government's claim. The White House said on 20 July 2026 that President Trump had imposed "additional 50% tariffs on certain goods of Canada", alleging discrimination over cars, alcohol and dairy. On 21 August Carney said he had decided "to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S.", called the last-minute US changes "unfair, uneconomic" and said Canada would respond "dollar for dollar". Events moved fast, so check the latest position. Canada still sent ministers to the US-hosted G20 meetings in Asheville and Milwaukee.

Representing Canada at a Model G20

• Likely allies: G7 partners on critical minerals and AI, Australia and India through ACITI, and CPTPP partners such as Australia, Japan and Mexico on open trade. India and, by Canada's account, South Africa have endorsed the G7 minerals plan, a bridge to developing economies.
• The United States: Canada's CUSMA partner, and the other side of a tariff dispute. Argue for rules rather than against a country, and look for overlap with the US themes of "unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains" and "pioneering new technologies and innovations".
• Likely red lines: reasoning from its statements, Canada is unlikely to accept text that endorses coercive trade measures, weakens "open, predictable and rules-based trade", or eases pressure on Russia: Carney's office says Canada "has imposed over 3,500 sanctions" and will "maintain and, where effective, tighten sanctions".
• Pick winnable fights: at Milwaukee the US chair reported consensus on a statement on the weaponization of food, an issue Canada raised, while a forced labour statement did not reach consensus. Lead with priorities others can sign.
• How to phrase it: borrow Canada's own language. Carney's Davos speech of January 2026 offers a strong line: "Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu." On the India dispute or the US tariffs, give each government's view in its own words.
• Documents to quote: the G20 Toronto Summit Declaration (2010), the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan (2025), Canada's 2035 commitment under the Paris Agreement (2025) and the Carney-Modi joint statement (2026). Check for updates before you cite them.

What to do next

Build your paper with how to write a Model G20 position paper, learn how texts are agreed in how a G20 leaders' declaration is agreed and the G20 Sherpa Track and Finance Track explained, and check this year's agenda in the 2026 G20 presidency explained.

Model G20 is One Young India's simulation of the G20 summit for students, held as a three-day residential summit at FLAME University.