Live updates: Carney and other world leaders meet in Alberta for G7 talks

However, federal sources who have spoken to the Star over the past several days in advance of the summit have downplayed the prospect of a deal emerging from their bilateral meeting, while acknowledging things could change quickly.

“Obviously the condition for us participating in a new defence and security partnership is that tariffs are lifted,” Dominic LeBlanc, Carney’s minister leading the Canada-U.S. file, said in an interview with the Star. “The Prime Minister has said that to the President.”

If not, LeBlanc said, Carney has prepared “a series of options” to increase Canada’s own counterpunch to the Americans.

“The government will look at all of the potential ways to increase pressure on the Americans if we conclude that we’re not close to or on the verge of a discussion that would give us the deal that would see all of these tariffs lifted.”

“The Prime Minister will decide over the coming days or weeks how he wants to proceed,” LeBlanc said.

But LeBlanc said their talks don’t amount to a quid pro quo negotiation, in which Canada simply pays billions more for defence or to participate in the Golden Dome and tariffs are subsequently dropped.

LeBlanc said that characterization makes it sound like a “take it or leave it” discussion, whereas the minister who has been shuttling back and forth between Ottawa and Washington characterized it as a more “nuanced” conversation, in which LeBlanc “totally” sees as a path to zero tariffs, despite suggestions by Trump’s ambassador that’s not in the cards.

Furthermore, Canada is ready to reopen deeper trilateral talks if the U.S. insists on turning next year’s scheduled review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal into a renegotiation, but LeBlanc said the U.S. has not demanded that.

“We’re all in on a trilateral Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement. And we’re happy to work with the Americans in reviewing that,” the minister said.

There is no trilateral meeting scheduled at this time between Trump, Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is also attending the G7 session that includes other world leaders.

For now, Canada-U.S. talks are focused on a bilateral agreement aimed at nailing what Carney called a more comprehensive economic and security partnership, as he said repeatedly during the campaign.

Carney told Radio-Canada host Patrice Roy on Wednesday that while he and Trump have made “progress” there is no agreement yet “ready for signing,” — which other Canadian officials who spoke to the Star on a background basis over the past two days echoed.

“We can wait,” said Carney. “We’re becoming stronger and the Americans are becoming weaker.” The prime minister noted that “no country has free trade with the United States right now. Other countries are getting reductions in tariffs but not the elimination of tariffs.”

Carney said he thinks he has a good rapport with Trump “but he is negotiating in the interest of Americans and I am negotiating for Canada and there is a vision of the trading world that is very different than our vision, and the vision of big countries in Asia, for example. So we have to find a solution.”

Meanwhile, Carney is pursuing and very publicly touting stronger alliances with other like-minded countries, downing beers Saturday with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer as they watched a hockey game, and meeting Sunday on Parliament Hill in Ottawa before heading to the G7 summit.

A joint statement Carney and Starmer issued highlighted their shared belief in the importance of “fair, open and predictable global trading system; reiterated their commitment to a rules-based international order underpinned by respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; and committed to advancing peace and trans-Atlantic security.” 

The prime minister said in the Radio-Canada interview it is possible to make progress at the G7 on Ukraine, noting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump, the head of NATO along with France and the U.K. as leaders of a “coalition of the willing” will all be there, in advance of a key NATO summit later this month.

Carney underscored, “there will never be a solution without Ukraine. We are going to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

How to address Ukraine and the economic fallout from his global tariff war will put Trump potentially at odds with other leaders, yet many are also seeking bilateral trade discussions with him on the sidelines.

Trump told reporters Wednesday he is dealing with “about 15 countries” and hopes to send letters out “in about a week and a half, two weeks” on where those negotiations have landed. But on Sunday before departing Washington he suggested some new trade deals would be nailed down at the summit.

“Look we have our trade deals. all we have to do is send a letter, this is what you’re going to have to pay. But I think we’ll have a few new trade deals” at the summit, Trump said Sunday en route to Kananaskis.

When the president doubled steel and aluminum tariffs from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, Carney did not immediately retaliate heading into the G7 summit, despite calls from domestic steel companies and unions who also want the Carney government to lift counter-tariff exemptions (known as remissions) on U.S. steel.

The government has, however, acted on their demand to tighten tariffs against other foreign countries who are suspected of dumping cheap steel into the Canadian market.

Trump was to arrive in Calgary Sunday, along with a number of his cabinet members, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were expected to attend.

Carney has scheduled a Tuesday morning bilateral meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official said.

The invitation to Modi drew sharp criticism in Canada. However Carney justified including Modi at the G7 outreach session, saying as leader of the world’s most populous country, Modi’s presence at talks on economic challenges such as harnessing critical minerals, artificial intelligence and quantum computing was important. He said Modi’s government has agreed to co-operate with Canadian law enforcement agencies investigating foreign interference including the alleged assassination of a Canadian citizen at the direction of Indian government agents.

Carney is expected to have about 16 bilateral meetings on the margins of the G7 sessions, said another Canadian official.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith along with Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek greeted Carney as he and his wife Diana Fox Carney’s plane landed.

They spoke for a few minutes in a brief and apparently cordial exchange, before the prime minister headed downtown for one-on-one meetings with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the G20 host who said he’d come to learn from Carney how to throw a summit.

Albanese told Carney, “We have very similar economies, historically. We share a vast continent, very vast,” Albanese said.

“You get your own continent,” Carney quipped.

In the evening Carney met in Kananaskis with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Several G7 countries stated ahead of the summit that one of their top priorities heading into the meetings was to find a consensus on how to help Ukraine achieve a lasting ceasefire with Russia.

However, with the sudden escalation of hostilities in the Middle East after Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities and killed key military leaders, and Iran responded with missile attacks on Israel, global security is top of mind.

“Obviously, the conflict with Israel and Iran is centrepiece,” Starmer told reporters at his meeting with Carney Sunday. “And this provides the opportunity to talk to our co-leaders about the fast-moving situation, and to make our strong case together that there must be de-escalation of this conflict in the interests of the region, and of course the world.”

The gathering was always going to be high stakes. It’s set against the backdrop of a volatile American-driven trade war and high-profile conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. Leaders from the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Italy will be in attendance, and of course, U.S. President Donald Trump. Host countries also have the right to invite others — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to attend, while Carney’s government has also reached out to leaders whose invitations raised controversy, including India’s Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad bin Salman. 

The Grade 6 students aren’t the first line of defence against bears for the meeting. Their particular G7 project is largely educational: these bushes won’t produce berries until fall, after the leaders are back home, and in any case, a newly constructed eight-foot fence now surrounds the hotel hosting the summit. But even having to consider bear intrusion plans is part of what makes hosting the G7 in Kananaskis — which will mean welcoming upwards of 5,000 people to a small wilderness refuge and surrounding areas — such a Herculean logistical task. 

It’s one of the biggest security jobs the RCMP has ever faced — one that includes guarding against everything from cybersecurity threats to protesters to lack of cell reception to yes, bears.

“If we were doing this in Toronto, like the 2010 G20, that has its own challenges,” says RCMP Chief Supt. David Hall, the director of the interagency team that has been planning security measures for the meeting for almost a year. (The gathering in Toronto saw massive antiglobalization protests that, while largely peaceful, also saw storefronts smashed and police cars torched. Hundreds were arrested.)

 “If you talked to those planners they’d probably say, ‘man, I wish I could do it in a remote area, maybe a little bit more secluded,” Hall said. “You just manage the challenge you’re faced with.” 

Of course, isolation may be partially the point. This will be a repeat performance for Kananaskis, which hosted the then-G8 in 2002. (Russia is no longer in the group, rendering the G8 a G7.) There had been fiery protests at the summit in Italy the year prior and the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center had fed fears of terrorism. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien switched the location from Ottawa to get back to basics but also because, as political scientist John Kirton wrote that year, Kananaskis was “difficult for civil society protesters and terrorists to get to and easy for security forces to defend.” 

Anyone who ventured closer, he added, “are more likely to require search and rescue services from the Canadian Armed Forces standing guard than to inflict any other inconvenience on them.” 

Covering a swath of hills and mountains between Calgary and Banff National Park, Kananaskis Country is roughly two-thirds the size of the Greater Toronto Area. The meetings themselves are being held in Kananaskis Village (though the word “village” might be overstating the case, slightly) which includes a hotel, golf course and nordic spa. There are mountain ranges on all sides, little to no local services, and mostly neighbours of the four-legged variety.

If you’re not looking to climb a mountain, the only access is to leave the Trans-Canada Highway and travel 20 minutes down a two-lane highway that caps speed at 90 km/hour, in part because of the erratic way the road curves and dips through the mountain valley, and in part because of the deer and bighorn sheep and bear that regularly wander into the road. In a boon to local hikers and canoe paddlers, cell reception has been installed on the road, which was previously largely a communications black hole. 

“It’s a lot of geography to secure, an we have plans that enable us to do that, and we’ve invested in a lot of different technology that will help secure that space and give us that situational awareness,” Hall says. 

In the days before this year’s G7, the patio tables were tarped over and the spa pools at the hotel sat empty, the tranquility of a pond between buildings interrupted only by two men in reflective vests debating where to place the sections of fence stacked on the back of their pickup. Staffers in G7 lanyards perused the plaid sweaters at the still-open gift shop. As the summit approaches, an escalating series of security measures have been put in place, with a local ski area, nearby hiking trails and even a few benches with a scenic view of the river blocked off by yellow tape. The Royal Canadian Air Force has been flying helicopters over the trees at night. 

The pine trees around the hotel are now dotted with security cameras mounted with shiny new screws and hikers in the area have reported venturing into the forest only to run into the military. 

“The remoteness affects accommodations, so all the security personnel need somewhere to sleep and eat,” Hall says. “We’ve had to take measures around supplying food and water to our folks, and then factoring in the time if they’re commuting from hotels and other communities, what does that do to their shifts and how long they’re working? And that affects the number of people we need.”

One hotel isn’t enough to house everyone, so many participants will be staying in Calgary and the town of Banff, which is an hour away. (If one wonders about the ability of a single hotel to cater to almost a dozen of the most influential people on earth, all presumably accustomed to presidential accommodations, Hall says they will not be commenting on where, exactly, everyone will be sleeping.) But when it comes to getting staff out to Kananaskis, Hall says they’ve had to stock up on food and water for staff and factor in the travel time from Calgary or Banff when planning out shifts. 

It’s also a challenging location for those looking to express dissent. Protesters won’t be able to get to the actual summit location. Designated protest zones have been set up in Calgary and Banff, though the RCMP says the protesters’ message will be ”broadcast” to the G7 leaders. Some activist leaders have said that they have no desire to antagonize police but may not remain inside the zones — something they’re not legally required to do.

Less than a week before the summit, a controlled access zone is in place that will include a 14-kilometre stretch of road and the surrounding mountain ranges, restricting anyone from getting within several kilometres of the village, in a car or on foot. The day before meetings get underway, a no-fly zone will drop around both Kananaskis Village and the Calgary airport, inside of which unauthorized aircraft or drones risk interception by a Canadian Armed Forces F-18. 

None of which matters much to the animals that are already there. Both black bears and grizzlies are plentiful in the area where the G7 is being held. (They’re particularly fond of the dandelions and other greenery around the golf course, bear experts say.) Among the security forces that will be on hand are conservation officers who be ready to deal with any rogue wildlife. The danger is not non-existent or exclusive to humans. The last time Kananaskis hosted, a bear got too close to the venue and, when officials tried to shoo it away, it fell out of a tree and was injured badly enough that it had to be euthanized.

In addition to the fences, the locations of some local bears are monitored and wildlife officers will be standing by to “haze” any problem bears out of the area by scaring them or ushering them along. 

“If you just watch a bear do its normal thing, it’s actually really nice,” says Miles Mackinnon, another Grade 6 student who has just used his clippers to make quick work of several buffalo berry bushes growing among the trees next to a parking lot near the G7 site. “They’re really graceful, and they walk really smoothly.” 

He’s glad to be helping remove the berry bushes that risk drawing bears into contact with humans, which he hopes will allow the bears to live their lives peacefully without interference from people.

The area makes sense for a serious meeting like this, because it’s peaceful, he adds.

At least until the motorcades arrive.

Look back, and — oh yea — there’s the orange menace to the south, who has repeatedly threatened to rip up trade deals, undermine our alliances, and repeatedly hinted at annexation.

And that’s not even counting the controversial invitees who passed.

The risks are so glaring that many have started asking what sounds like a perfectly reasonable question: with so many potential pitfalls, why risk controversy? Why roll out the red carpet for leaders with questionable democratic credentials? Why not aim for the safest possible summit and avoid unnecessary entanglements?

To those asking such questions, I would pose another: what country — and what prime minister — have you been watching?

Because to ask those questions is to fundamentally misunderstand the style, strategy, and ambitions of Mark Carney.

What the Prime Minister understands is this: Canada is not, at this moment, operating from a position of default influence. After years of missteps, drift, and diplomatic fatigue, credibility must be earned back — not assumed. And in that rebuilding effort, there are no “risk-free” moves. There is no “safe play” that leads to restored status.

It’s not a matter of risk versus reward — it’s all risk. Because the cost of caution, at this point, is irrelevance.

Carney’s mandate, as he has said repeatedly, is not to return things to “business as usual” — it’s to reset the terms entirely.

Because here’s the truth: Carney may have successfully turned the page from Justin Trudeau for Canadians. But he now needs to do the same for Canada on the world stage.

And that requires both substance and style.

Substantively, Carney made a shrewd and necessary move by pre-emptively reaffirming Canada’s commitment to meet NATO’s two per cent GDP defence target by this year — and exceed it by 2030. It wasn’t just a policy statement; it was strategic table-setting.

It was a down payment on seriousness. A demonstration that Canada is no longer phoning it in. That we understand the price of admission for a seat at the table — without being considered the freeloading distant relative that only comes calling when he needs something.

And now for the style.

If you think personality and tone don’t matter in geopolitics, just ask Donald Trump — whose animus for Justin Trudeau was visceral and deeply personal. Relationships matter. Posture matters.

So, this may well be Carney’s Nixon-in-China moment.

Precisely because of his technocratic credentials, his reputation for caution, and his short runway as a political actor — Carney has the credibility to go bold. To sit across from the world’s leaders and say: whatever grievances you had with the last guy, this is a new chapter.

That is the unique power of hosting. You get to set the table. You get to choose the tone.

And right now, Canada must seize both opportunities — not just to manage the moment, but to reintroduce itself to the world.

Now is not the time to play it safe.

Israel’s targeted strikes on Iran Thursday, Iran’s retaliatory bombings Friday, warnings from the U.S. and calls for immediate de-escalation, including by Canada, are just the latest alarming developments. Russia’s vow to retaliate for Ukraine’s successful drone strikes on its air fleet, as Trump attempts to drive a U.S.-led negotiated deal, are another. “Russia is simply lying to Trump,” said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week, ahead of his arrival in Kananaskis, Alta. Then there are Trump’s global tariffs that the World Bank says is a drag on the world’s economic growth.

Prime Minister Mark Carney as G7 host faces a massive challenge to find common ground for the Group of Seven leaders to emerge with any consensus on the burning issues of our time.

He’s already ditched expectations of a single joint communiqué out of concern it could be upended unexpectedly, as happened last time Canada hosted the G7 and Trump stomped all over it. 

Navigating heightened geopolitical tensions at this moment is harder than it looks.

South Africa, which hosts the G20 later this year, says Canada must show leadership at what is “a very precarious time,” and seek “sufficient consensus” — not unanimity — to drive action to resolve the major conflicts, according to its top envoy to Canada.

“Can the G7 meet and ignore the fact that we are on the brink of a nuclear war? I mean, what then would be the purpose of the G7” asked South African High Commissioner to Canada Rieaz Shaik, who hopes there will be strong declarations that result.

He said unilateral actions that violated rules and were met by “impunity” from the multilateral systems and institutions meant to address them are the source of most of the world’s current conflicts, pointing to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the U.S.-led tariff war, with the Israel-Iran eruptions the most immediate threat.

“Now is the time for enormous shuttle diplomacy between countries,” Shaik said.

“Under Carney,” he added, “there’s a unique opportunity, there’s a unique moment for middle powers to come together to create a strong enough alliance to build sufficient consensus. And that is why we are here, why we have come to this G7.”

A senior Canadian official, who gave a background-only briefing to reporters, said the G7 is a group where consensus is essential to its functioning.

That’s why sources have told the Star Carney is aiming for a short crisp chair’s statement, and possibly summaries of other sessions. However, as of Thursday, only one — on fighting wildfires — seemed achievable, while another G7 source said days ago there was no declaration yet in the works on Ukraine.

A lot of hard work will also be done in bilateral meetings — and as of Friday, the PMO said Carney will try to meet as many leaders as possible on the sidelines. But no trilateral meeting between Trump, Carney and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum was yet scheduled.

Before the Israel-Iran explosion of violence, war between Russia and Ukraine was identified by many of the G7 countries which include the U.S, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, and EU leaders, as their top priority.

British High Commissioner to Canada Rob Tinline in an interview said “The G7 has driven action in support of Ukraine, put pressure on Russia and it will be important that that continues and obviously the presence, the fact Ukraine is there, is important symbolically but also in substance.”

German Ambassador Matthias Lüttenberg said “the key message, as always in G7 summits, is a message of unity, so that we will manage to leave this summit and saying yes, we have agreed, be it statements or be it — I don’t know what sort of agreements — but that would be a success.

“We have so many challenges right now, not only as the G7 but worldwide, and we have the responsibility of the G7 to give some answers to these most pressing challenges,” said Lüttenberg. 

“Success, to me would be unity, if we manage to find a common response to the Russian challenge.”

“Everybody knows today is almost the turning point of history,” said Japanese Ambassador Kanji Yamanouchi, listing Ukraine, Middle East, and global economic and environmental issues as critical for the G7. Japan’s turn hosting the G7 two years ago focused a lot on the need for multilateral co-operation on harnessing critical minerals, artificial intelligence and quantum computing to tackle major problems, including national security, and Yamanouchi says the G7 can focus on the “pros and cons, the light and the shadows” of emerging technologies to “not regulate, but to set guidance” for the world.

“Candid opinion and frank discussion, I think that is the only way to reach to the middle ground where all those G7 countries can agree or can work together. And I think the key word is unity and solidarity of G7 and we need to show it to the world,” he said.

Unity may be desirable, but it’s not necessarily achievable.

G7 foreign ministers had in March jointly reaffirmed “unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence” and backed calls for Russia to agree on an immediate and enforceable ceasefire.

But they only “discussed” further sanctions if Russia did not agree, including caps on oil prices, and more support for Ukraine including “the use of extraordinary revenues stemming from immobilized Russian sovereign assets.” Canada has strongly advocated for Russian assets to be not just frozen, but seized and turned over to Ukraine.

That’s a bridge too far for some. Countries like France and Germany, for example, do not have the legal means to do so.

Tinline, Britain’s envoy, said it’s “quite a complicated legal picture. The powers that we’ve got have increased. In terms of action against Russia, we have expanded the powers that we’ve had in terms of sanctions, in terms of freezing and seizing assets over the years,” but he added “it’s a new territory where all of the G7 need to work together to try and kind of, you know, within each of our legal systems to develop.”

South Africa’s envoy to Canada says at this point, those discussions amount to tinkering around the edges of what’s needed, which is a “concerted effort to get Russia and Ukraine to the table to genuinely end this war.”

Days ago, Carney laid out the case for Canada to swiftly ramp up annual military spending to meet its NATO targets in a speech that suddenly looks more like a curtain-raiser on what he’s likely to underscore in G7.

“Threats from a more dangerous and divided world are unravelling the rules-based international order — an order fused by the settlements at the ends of the Second World War and the Cold War — an order on which Canada has relied for longer than most of our lifetimes.”

The consequences of that are “profound,” said Carney, but he argued that Canada can work toward new international partnerships “that are more secure, prosperous, just, and free” and pursue “deeper alliances with stable democracies who share our interests, values, principles, and history.”

“And we can help create a new era of integration between like-minded partners that maximizes mutual support over mutual dependency — a new system of co-operation that promotes greater resilience, rather than merely greater efficiency.”

With that ambitious goal in mind, and on top of the G7 members, Carney will host the heads of the UN, NATO and the World Bank, along with Brazil, South Africa, India, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Ukraine, Mexico and Australia.