OTTAWA—U.S. President Donald Trump is waiting to see who wins the Canadian election before talking to the prime minister, says Liberal Leader Mark Carney.
At a news conference Monday in Gander, N.L., Carney revealed his advisers’ efforts to have a call with the U.S. president have not yet borne any fruit, and said a “reasonable interpretation” is that Trump is biding his time.
“The president is waiting for the outcome of the election and see who has a strong mandate from Canadians, or who has a mandate from Canadians,” Carney said. “Is it someone who is, to quote (Alberta Premier) Daniel Smith, who’s in sync with him, or is it someone who’s going to stand up for Canadians?”
Carney has said he previously met Trump at G7 and G20 meetings during the president’s first term when Carney was Bank of England governor.
“I’m available for a call,” Carney said. “But you know, we’re going to talk on our terms as a sovereign country, not as what he pretends we are (a 51st state), and on a comprehensive deal” to set out fair bilateral trade relations.
Trump did not call Carney to congratulate him after the Liberal leader replaced Justin Trudeau on March 9, nor after he was sworn in as prime minister on March 14. Carney’s team had reached out to the American president to arrange a call, senior Canadian officials told reporters last week.
But Carney made clear on his first foreign trip to Europe that he would not meet in person with Trump to talk about trade until the U.S. president stopped his taunts about making Canada a 51st state, showed respect for Canadian sovereignty, and until he was ready to talk about a new trade deal in a “comprehensive” manner, not on the basis of one-off sectoral threats.
Carney reiterated that stance Monday, as he stood at the Gander airport, where thousands of stranded American passengers on 9/11 found refuge and a warm welcome by Canadians.
“I’m going to stand up for Canadians — I hope Canadians will back me — and then we’ll have a discussion on the basis of … first, respect for our country as a sovereign nation,” said Carney.
He took a direct shot at the Trump administration pointing out what Gander residents have done for Americans, and the long history of Canada-U.S. ties, saying “you would think respect and friendship for Canada” would be the bare minimum.
“I’m just looking for respect, at this point, acknowledgment of our sovereign nation,” said Carney, wryly.
“Secondly, given the scale of the US trade actions against steel and aluminum, which is absolutely against the terms of (the continental free trade deal) CUSMA, given the series of other actions and the prospective actions on the second of April, we need to have a comprehensive discussion with the Americans on the broader economic and, I would say, security partnership as well.
“So we’ll wait for that,” he said. Carney listed steps the Liberal government has taken to buffer the impact of tariffs, including levying counter-tariffs on about $60 billion worth of American imports. (Carney erroneously said Ottawa has only levied countermeasures on the first $30 billion of a $155 billion worth of imports.).
The federal government has made changes to the employment insurance program to expedite claims and allow broader worksharing programs, and is rolling out liquidity and other financial credit support for businesses and farms that will be impacted by the American tariffs, he noted.
“This is a fundamental mistake that the Americans are making. They think they will weaken us. They think that they can own us,” Carney said.
“We are going to get stronger. We are going to wait this out. They’re going to come to the table and we’re going to negotiate a good deal for the Canadians.”
The Trump factor continued to play out on the election trail Monday, day 2 of the federal campaign, after interview comments by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to the right-wing outlet Breitbart reverberated. Smith said she urged Trump administration officials to set aside the tariff talk until Canada’s election ended, and suggested Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would be more in sync with the administration than the Liberals.
Poilievre declined to say whether Smith’s comments were appropriate or not, saying Monday, “people are free to make their own comments. I speak for myself,” as he pivoted away from that topic to criticize the Liberal record which he said left Canada in a weak position to face Trump.
“My agenda is to put Canada first for a change. You know, there’s a reason why Donald Trump wants the weak, out of touch Liberals in power — they’ve handed him control of our economy,” Poilievre said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in Montreal to announce a plan to use federal public land to boost the construction of affordable rent-controlled housing said neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives can be trusted to give relief to Canadians who will be hardest hit by tariffs as he teed off Smith’s comments.
“This is not a game. This is serious. We got to defend our country. We gotta stand together. We can’t afford to have people going off and trying to cut deals that hurt political parties. We should be defending Canadians,” he said.
