Politics
Canada’s soft-power flex
OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s rousing Davos speech, where he called on middle powers to not become losers to the world’s “hegemons,” delivered a message that positioned Canada as an influential convening power.
Now, with billions watching — including during this afternoon’s match between Germany and Côte d’Ivoire in Toronto — the World Cup is giving Canada an unprecedented opportunity to thirst-trap a global audience to take America’s neighbor a little more seriously.
“The international brand of Canada is important for our economy, for our place in the world, diplomatically, but also commercially,” Canada’s Secretary of State for Sport and Olympic gold medalist Adam van Koeverden told Blue Light News.
“We just want to emphasize that Canada is open for business,” he said. “We’re taking advantage of the reality that all eyes will be on Canada for the next couple of weeks throughout the FIFA tournament … and we want to continue to reinforce relationships, make new friends [and] meet new corporate partners.”
Canada needs foreign investors to get the Carney government’s dreams of building oil pipelines, new rail and port expansions to unlock new wealth for a country that continues to be the target of tariffs and casual annexation threats from its closest ally. And a bellicose U.S. President Donald Trump has only helped Carney in his trips around the world to lure more foreign investment, selling Canada as a reliable destination to an unreliable United States.
A goal for senior Canadian government officials is to use the World Cup to bait deep-pocketed viewers to attend the inaugural Canada Investment Summit that Carney is organizing in September. The idea is to attract “the world’s largest investors” to raise C$1 trillion over the next five years to charge the economy — Carney’s message of adapting to the global “rupture” by wresting economic control of the future put into practice.
That could mean more cash to expand sport infrastructure, such as stadiums, to host more global sporting events. The Toronto Stadium is notably the World Cup’s smallest among the 16 host cities with a 43,000-seat capacity. But organizers don’t want people to fixate on that.
Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto Secretariat, told Forecast the city is leaning in hard on its “world in a city” theme — a nod to a city widely recognized as the most multicultural in the world.
“We speak 250 languages in our city,” she said. “Our cultural diversity is very extensive and vibrant … in all of our neighborhoods, in food, in the culture.” Asked what’s different about Toronto compared to Los Angeles, another city that could claim the same characteristics, Bollenbach suggested it’s the general optimism in the air that sets the Canadian city apart. “I think we just live that every day in such a positive and energetic way that that’s something we really want to showcase,” she said.
There’s hope the waterfront images of Toronto’s CN Tower and Vancouver’s North Shore mountains in the backdrop of World Cup stadium shots will generate an eventual tourism boom that hasn’t yet happened for the tournament itself.
Sara Anghel, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, said one factor in lower-than-expected demand is that half the game tickets sold in Toronto are “local-ish” from the city area and province. The trend isn’t unique to Toronto after FIFA canceled blocks of thousands of hotel rooms in host cities this spring in response to fizzled out expectations.
“June is already a really, really busy month for Toronto, and so when we’re bringing this World Cup that’s never happened in our city ever, we’ve displaced all of the meetings and conferences that would usually come into the city,” Anghel said.
“They’re staying away because of the FIFA games.”
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The United States is failing in its responsibility as a World Cup host country, Iranian officials argued in a government statement shared exclusively with Blue Light News that declared Mexico the tournament’s off-field winner.
“The 2026 FIFA World Cup is played not only in stadiums but also in the streets, airports and public squares,” said Mohammad Reza Gilani, cultural affairs adviser at the Embassy of Iran in Mexico. “And in this parallel competition, Mexico seems to have taken the lead.”
Gilani praised what he described as Mexico’s welcoming atmosphere for visiting fans, contrasting it with immigration-related difficulties in the U.S., including visa complications and entry concerns affecting some delegations including his own.
His comments come at a precarious moment for relations between the U.S. and Iran, which barely a week ago were the only host nation and competitor, respectively, to enter the World Cup while at war. Since Iran’s opening match, President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war against Tehran.
Off the field, tensions remain. Iran had to relocate its training camp from Tucson to Tijuana, and the soccer federation said Thursday it plans to lodge a complaint with FIFA after a request to travel to Los Angeles two days before Sunday’s match against Belgium was denied. Several members of the Iranian delegation have also denied visas from the State Department.
The Trump administration has defended its handling of the delegation’s travel arrangements. White House World Cup Task Force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani told Blue Light News that 31 Iranian players and their coaches were approved for visas and said allowing the team to enter the U.S. one day before the match represented “a good will gesture” by U.S. authorities.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran has found Mexico a far more welcoming host, and has sought to expand its presence beyond soccer by operating a booth at a global expo in Mexico City. For Iranian officials, the contrast between the tournament’s co-hosts has become part of the story.
“Infrastructure matters. Stadiums matter. Security also matters,” said Gilani, a cultural affairs adviser at Iran’s embassy. “But history shows that great hosts are remembered for something deeper: Being able to make the world feel welcome.”
“The 2026 World Cup is just getting underway,” he added, “but one thing already seems clear. Beyond the results on the pitch, Mexico is winning one of the tournament’s most important matches: the match of hospitality.”
Climate activists are planning protests Sunday against FIFA’s sponsorship deal with Saudi state-owned oil and gas giant Aramco at World Cup sites and fan zones across the country.
Organizer Zan Dubin told Blue Light News the protests are aimed at pressuring FIFA to drop Aramco while calling attention to the way oil company advertising becomes part of fans’ World Cup memories, a practice she called “sportswashing,” even as greenhouse gas emissions from oil use drive global temperatures higher.
The main action is set to take place outside Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium ahead of the Belgium-Iran match there. The protest represents an extension of a crosstown campaign known as Dodger Fans Against Fossil Fuels, a Los Angeles-based campaign that has gathered nearly 30,000 signatures urging Dodgers owner Mark Walter to drop oil company Phillips 66.
FIFA announced Aramco as a major worldwide partner in 2024, giving the company sponsorship rights across several tournaments, including the 2026 Men’s World Cup and the 2027 Women’s World Cup. The deal drew pushback from climate and human rights groups, and more than 100 professional women’s soccer players later urged FIFA to drop it. Aramco’s logo appears prominently in stadiums and on global match broadcasts.
The Los Angeles protest is being organized by a local chapter of the Sierra Club and Third Act SoCal and is expected to include Extinction Rebellion Lamenters, street-theater demonstrators dressed in sackcloth. Dubin said she was also in touch with protesters planning to show up at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami before a match there, as well as at fan sites in New Jersey, Seattle and Dallas.
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