Few ideas have been more enduring in Canadian foreign policy than the “middle power.” “Middle powers must act together,” Carney said in Davos, “because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” Italian historian Gabriele Abbondanza, in a 2020 paper, traced the origins of the middle power concept to sixteenth-century Italy, where political thinker Giovanni Botero divided city states into three types: grandissime (great powers), mezano (middle powers), and piccioli (minor powers). What counts as a middle power depends entirely on what you mean by “middle.” In effect, Canada could play the middle power role because it was anchored on the US side of the world order.