Liberals gather to discuss the issues facing Canada, but Donald Trump wasn’t on the agenda

Those threats were front and centre in the 2025 campaign with Prime Minister Mark Carney promising an “Elbows Up” response to Trump that would secure a new trade deal.

A Friday afternoon panel on “Buy Canadian, Build Canada,” with Minister Dominic LeBlanc who is responsible for negotiating in bilateral trade talks with Trump’s administration, only made a brief mention of those negotiations.

Instead, LeBlanc talked mostly about the need to tear down internal trade barriers and grow the economy domestically. 

When Industry Minister Mélanie Joly talked to delegates early in the day, she mentioned the Liberals’ plan to focus not on Trump, but on the changes they could make at home.

“We can’t control what is going on in the White House. We can’t control what is going on in the Middle East. But we can control what we do with our country and how we build our economy.”

Brian Clow, a senior adviser to former prime minster Justin Trudeau, said conventions are managed to create the right impression. He said Trump’s name may not be being said a lot at the convention, but the debates he has spurred are definitely being talked about.

“Even if this issue is not front and centre, it’s definitely still the biggest focus of this government and it’s something I know all the key players are thinking about and are focused on,” he said Friday.

Party members are also voting on 26 separate resolutions and only one of those touches on the ongoing trade war. That resolution calls on the government to diversify Canada’s trade “so that no single jurisdiction accounts for more than 50 per cent of Canada’s total trade volume,” but the resolution doesn’t mention which country — the U.S. — currently makes up 75 per cent of Canada’s trade. 

Past Liberal conventions have included high-profile U.S. Democrats as speakers, including Trump’s former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton. This year there have been no American politicians addressing the convention, with the Liberals opting for addresses from their own finance minister François-Philippe Champagne on the first night, and “Man in Motion” Rick Hansen. 

Carney, who has been at the convention each day shaking hands and posing for selfies, will do the final keynote address of the event on Saturday afternoon.

Clow, who also worked on the renegotiation of NAFTA during Trump’s first term, said Canadian officials try to make the relationship with the U.S. as constructive as possible. 

“I’m not going to say that they built this schedule with that specifically in mind, but I would say it would be prudent to have done so,” he said. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand rejected any suggestion that the U.S. trading relationship was being avoided. 

“The issue of our trading relationships is on the agenda, the issue of our sovereignty is on the agenda. And in particular, the goal of doubling non-U.S. trade over the next 10 years is squarely on the agenda,” she said after appearing on a panel about national security Friday.

Liberal MP Chris Bittle, who represents St. Catharines, said the conversation delegates are having doesn’t change the broader picture.

“I won’t put too much into that in terms of what the delegates want to talk about. We need to talk ‘Building Canada Strong’ and I see that as the focus.”

Marci Surkes, who also worked for Trudeau, said the convention is coming at a time when the government is more focused on implementation. 

“It’s very clear the government is not looking for considerable policy input. It has its direction and it’s likely viewing itself in implementation mode rather than policy design.”