A day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to increase the already 25 per cent tariff on Canada’s auto industry and said Canada would “cease to exist” without the U.S., reporters revisited the supposedly “constructive”
phone callLiberal Leader Mark Carney had with the president.
During a press conference in Coquitlam, B.C., where Carney vowed government-funded housing and stricter gun control laws, he was grilled by reporters on the supposed success of his conversation with Trump.
After the phone call, he
assuredCanadians that Trump respected the sovereignty of Canada, but Trump’s recent comments claiming Canada wouldn’t be sovereign without the U.S. put Carney’s previous statements into question.
Carney said he made it clear to Trump that Canada would never become the 51st state when they spoke.
“The President and I, when we spoke, agreed that Canada and the United States, as sovereign nations, would begin negotiations on our economic and security relationship following the federal election,” he said Thursday. “I think the President’s comments yesterday and before that just underscore how important the choice that Canadians have on Monday, who can stand up to President Trump.”
When asked if Trump brought up Canada as the 51st state during his March 28th phone call, he at first talked around the question, but after pressure from other reporters, he admitted that Trump did mention his desire to annex Canada again.
“The President brings this up all the time. He brought it up yesterday. He’s brought it up before,” Carney said. “There’s a difference between a conversation that was held between leaders of government, which was this conversation, and a discussion that led directly to an agreement that as sovereign countries, we would have negotiations about our partnership, following the election on Monday.”
When pressured to answer the question, he said that he “said that (Trump) did” bring up Canada as the 51st state.
One reporter noted that she asked Carney right after his phone call with the president if Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty, and Carney at the time assured the public that he did.
“The President has certain things in his mind that he reverts back to all the time. But treated me as the Prime Minister, not as something else. I’m not even going to say the word he used to use about my predecessor,” Carney said, referring to Trump calling former prime minister Justin Trudeau “the governor of Canada.”
“He treated me as the prime minister. We had discussions as sovereign nations. We agreed as sovereign nations that these negotiations will begin after the election on Monday,” Carney said. “And that is how it was reported back, and that’s absolutely accurate.”
Carney affirmed that the post-election negotiations with Trump have to be a “serious discussion” between “sovereign nations.”
He said that’s why Canada needs to build up a strong economy to deal with the U.S., and downplayed the impact the tariffs would have on Canada’s economy if Canada were in a better position than it currently is.
“We can give ourselves far more than the Americans can take away just I’ll put numbers on this just for a second. Bank of Canada thinks worst case, the U.S. trade war, the global trade war. It’s about 100 or 125 billion off our economy, a few years out. Just free trade in Canada is $200 billion for Canada,” he said.
He said that’s before factoring in all the investment into housing, energy, trade coridors and critical minerals the Liberals are proposing.
“It gives us leverage in the negotiation. We don’t have to do a deal in the short term,” Carney said. “My government will do the right deal, the best deal for Canada. That’s why I’m asking people for their vote, so we are in a position to accomplish it for them.”
Revisiting the phone call he had during the one week Carney was Prime Minister before the election was called, he reaffirmed that the two leaders agreed to have negotiations after the election. He also said he ‘advised” the president that Canada would retaliate with its own tariffs.
“The President’s ideas in his head, his designs wants to break us so he can own us,” Carney added. “The question is, who’s going to stand up to that? I’m ready to do it.”
truenorthwire.com