Mark Carney tells U.S. investors Canada 'can help make America great again'

Carney repeated his view, articulated on the global stage in his Davos speech, that the old rules-based order has undergone a “rupture” but he defended Canada as a staunch partner for the U.S., as it is for other allies, saying that the stronger and more resilient Canada’s economy becomes, the better ally it can be for the United States.

Much of Carney’s speech recapped his agenda to deregulate, cap spending and diversify export trade, cast as reasons investors could have confidence in the claim that a lot has changed in Canada. He insisted Canada is keen to forge a new relationship with the U.S. — a pitch that served as a political counter-argument to Trump officials who cast Canada as being deliberately antagonistic toward Washington.

Carney said he has made specific proposals — which he did not detail — to the Trump administration about “where we should work together and compete with the world together” and pointed to two key sectors on which it has imposed punishing tariffs in his own push to boost domestic manufacturing: aluminum and automobiles.

The prime minister added critical minerals as a sector where Canada should be seen as a trusted supplier, not as a competitive threat to America’s interests.

Still, the Trump administration continues to highlight trade irritants in the bilateral relationship. Those have included provincial bans on U.S. alcohol sales, dairy quotas, and the latest — Canada’s requirement that U.S. online streaming services must contribute money to the creation of Canadian content like traditional broadcasters have had to do.

U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra posted Thursday after meeting with American firms that Canada’s “online streaming tax will drive away investment and job creation in Canada’s creative sector.”

“This unfair tax will drive up costs for Canadian consumers and targets U.S. companies. This law should be immediately repealed,” Hoekstra said. The Conservatives also support repeal of what they call the “Netflix tax.”

After his speech, the prime minister defended his January strategic partnership with China — which has irritated Trump and other Republicans — as a much-needed but “very basic reset of the relationship,” both diplomatically and economically. 

Carney said the deal he made with President Xi Jinping lifts China’s punitive tariffs on Canadian agricultural and seafood products and provides that Ottawa will admit cheaper Chinese-made electric vehicles at a controlled rate — allowing 49,000 EVs at first, a minimal three per cent of Canada’s overall auto market, at a low “most-favoured nation” tariff rate of just over six per cent. Beyond the 49,000, Chinese EVs will face 100 per cent duty that Ottawa imposed in lockstep with the U.S.

The deal restores EV imports to levels they were at before diplomatic relations broke down, most of which were Teslas to begin with, and Carney revealed most of the vehicles to enter under the new deal “are Teslas as well, in the short term.”

Aside from the speech Carney also met privately with executives of big investment firms including BlackRock, General Atlantic, JPMorgan Chase, Blackstone, Morgan Stanley and Apollo. And he held a business Roundtable

While in New York, he also participated in a conversation with the following members from a leading group of American CEOs known as the Business Roundtable, which included a Netflix executive and other leaders of companies, some of which are already active in Canada.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney’s approach to the U.S. is inconsistent.

“On the one hand, he says that we are in the middle of a rupture with the United States, while on the other he says he wants to make America, in his words, ‘great again,’” he said. “He cannot seem to decide if integration with the U.S. is a strength or a weakness. He’s argued passionately for both positions in the last three months alone.”

Poilievre blamed Liberal policies for trade tensions and criticized Carney’s claim that direct foreign investment in Canada is increasing, saying “these are paper transactions, not investment in new machines or hiring new workers, but foreign corporations taking control over Canadian companies that are now trading cheap because of our weak dollar and our undervalued business environment.” 

However, Carney said the early results of his government’s diversification efforts “are encouraging. Canada is projected to have the second fastest growth in the G7 this year and next.”

Brian Clow, a former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to Justin Trudeau on Canada-U.S. relations, said it was a “disciplined, well-targeted speech.”

“Going to the Economic Club of New York, speaking directly to the U.S. business community, is exactly the right forum to be advocating for Canada’s interests. These are the people with the most to lose from tariffs and trade disruption, and they have the ear of the administration,” Clow said in a written reply to the Star.

“The prime minister is doing what smart Canadian governments have always done on Canada-U.S. relations: talking directly to people who have influence, not just those in the administration. The speech had to walk the line of delivering the government’s messages without offending the president on his home turf. I think it achieved that.”

LeBlanc told CBC TV’s “Power and Politics” Thursday that he was in a video conference Monday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer . LeBlanc said he is “optimistic” ahead of the July 1 deadline that there is “a path” for Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to agree to renew the free trade pact.

In New York, the prime minister said America should understand Canadian aluminum is produced with abundant low-cost hydro power, and there is no need for the United States to spend massive amounts of money trying to generate the “gigawatts” needed to produce more aluminum domestically.

On automobiles, where Trump wants to replace foreign production with America-based manufacturing, Carney pitched an integrated North American market as “the best and most durable way to confront intense global competition.” 

And on critical minerals, Carney pointed to Canada’s rich stores of potash, nickel, copper and uranium, saying Canada can be America’s most reliable supplier “to put affordable food on the table, to strengthen its national defence and meet its exploding demand to power AI.”

Although he never directly criticized the U.S., the White House or Trump, Carney spoke of his government’s effort to develop other global defence and trading partnerships as a defensive strategy.

“Our core objective is to increase our strategic autonomy, because we live in a world where integration has been weaponized,” he said.

Canada is making progress on this agenda, he said, “because our reputation as a reliable, predictable partner has rarely been more valuable in a world where transactions are replacing relationships.”

Citing his professional experience managing crises like the 2008 global financial crisis and Brexit, Carney said the right paths out of those crises “both look clear in hindsight” but were not clear to everyone back then.

“The right response to the global rupture today is clearer than it may feel,” he said, adding Canada understands the global changes underway and “so we’re focused on what we can control. And that means weaving a dense web of international partnerships abroad that is making us a much stronger, more resilient, more independent country.

“This is good for all Canadians, but it is also good for the United States, because a stronger Canada is a better ally.”