In his dramatic speech at Davos in January, Prime Minister Mark Carney grabbed the world’s attention, laying out how the major powers have ruptured the international order of trade and diplomacy. Canada needs to step up in this new arrangement, he said, cooperating with other middle powers and drawing on its existing strengths. One of these strengths is its globally respected system of pension funds.

“Our pension funds are amongst the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors,” Carney told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The funds are one of Canada’s prized assets, along with the country’s educated workforce and its sizable reserves of energy and critical minerals. “We have capital, talent and a government…