Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Switzerland on Monday to join the global power elite for the World Economic Forum in the ski resort town of Davos, where he's looking to drum up investment from other countries and corporations.

The forum puts Carney together with the movers and shakers he encountered during his past work as a central banker and United Nations envoy.

"It is a clearly a significant meeting of what you might call globally influential elite, coming from a variety of backgrounds [and] those representing capital around the world," said University of British Columbia political scientist Stewart Prest.

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Carney to give speeches Tuesday and Wednesday

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau also attended Davos in 2016 and 2018, though Prest said he did not have the same gravitas that Carney brings to the summit.

"[Carney] is somebody who doesn't really have to justify his presence in a conversation like this, because he very clearly understands macroeconomics in a granular way. And so that means it's a different proposition for him to go to a place like Davos," he said.

"He is speaking the language of those who are there, and they are going to be interested in what he has to say — not only as a representative of Canada, but actually as someone with considerable expertise and background in the issues that are going to be discussed."

Carney is set to give speeches Tuesday and Wednesday aimed at luring investment to Canada before returning to Ottawa.

He is set to leave Switzerland on Wednesday and might depart before Trump is set to speak at Davos, at 9:30 a.m. Ottawa time.

Trump's unpredictability could upend the entire gathering, Prest said.

"The United States looks to be actively trading away its status as a global hegemon with interests and influence around the world for a kind of Western hemispheric bully. That is a remarkable retrenchment. It is a step back," he said.

"The world, in a realist lens, is a matter of finding ways to defend your own sovereignty, and support the prosperity of your country, by whatever means necessary."