Even as new Liberal Party of Canada leader Mark Carney accepted what state broadcaster CBC called a “landslide victory” in the governing party’s leadership race, he established who he would be opposing and running against in the looming federal election: President Donald Trump.
“So there's someone who's trying to weaken our economy: Donald Trump. Donald Trump,” he repeated. “And Donald Trump, as we know, has put, as the Prime Minister just said, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living. He is attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed, and we won't. We won't.”
It’s quite true that Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership race with 86% of the vote, which could more accurately be called a leadership walk because Carney did not campaign with any vigor or real concern, but just before Sunday’s vote, reports emerged that about two-thirds of those registered to vote had been mysteriously disqualified from doing so.
But what has Canada won in the trade war by keeping its “counter-tariffs” on US goods even as Trump deferred his across the board tariff of 25%?
Perhaps nothing, but Carney and the Liberals might have won a great deal, including winning the next federal election because while they were at least 20 percentage points behind the Conservative Party of Canada on Jan. 6 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his decision to resign, some polls are now indicating that the Liberals under Carney could not only beat the Tories but achieve a majority government.
It has been clear that Trudeau has passively, and perhaps even actively, encouraged a trade war with the US while continuing to demonize Trump for his statements about making Canada the 51st state. Trudeau has even encouraged people to boo when the American anthem is played at hockey games. It dawned on Trump this month just how Trudeau used the anti-American theme to help keep his party in power.
“Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me to ask what could be done about Tariffs. I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped. He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner! He was unable to tell me when the Canadian Election is taking place, which made me curious, like, what’s going on here? I then realized he is trying to use this issue to stay in power. Good luck Justin!” Trump posted on X.
Speaking Sunday in Ottawa prior to the announcement that Carney would replace him, Trudeau said, “As Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge, an economic crisis, Canadians are showing exactly what we are made of. Canadians are showing what it is that makes us Canadians – not by defining ourselves by who we're not, but by proudly embracing who we are.”
“And we're a country that will be diplomatic when we can but fight when we must. Elbows up.”
He has thrived through this fight as the anti-American rhetoric has soared and Liberal political fortunes with it. Trudeau has done very little to actually address the primary reason that Trump has said the tariff is about border security and fentanyl seeping into the US. When Trump deferred the tariff for the first time, Trudeau promised to put “10,000 frontline personnel” at the border, in addition to the appointment of a fentanyl czar. He found the czar – a former deputy RCMP commissioner who was working as a senior advisor to the prime minister – but did nothing about 10,000 more people at the border.
He has kept maintaining that his $1.3 billion border security plan from last December’s Fall Economic Statement would address Trump’s demands, even though the spending in that plan unfolds over six years with little of it occurring in the first three.
Trudeau has even co-opted Official Opposition and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre to the prime minister’s “Team Canada” despite Poilievre’s initial attempts to distance himself from the Liberal government by emphasizing he would be pursuing a “Canada First” strategy that would oppose US tariffs but not attempt the sort of massive retaliation espoused by Trudeau and now by Carney.
Recently, Poilievre has consistently echoed the anti-Trump, anti-American statements of Trudeau and at a Canada First Rally in Ottawa in February, the Conservative leader strongly endorsed the Liberal government’s position of hitting America with retaliatory tariffs.
Although Carney mentioned Poilievre in his victory speech – which was really the same address he has been giving to small and larger groups of supporters across Canada during the leadership race – he did not suggest the Conservative leader was in the government bag on the anti-Trump messaging, only faulting Poilievre for having spent his entire career in Parliament. But then he turned back to the US.
“America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form. Look, we didn't ask for this fight. We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” Carney said, referring to how hockey players must first jettison their hand gear before fighting on the ice. “So the Americans, they should make no mistake - in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”
