Liberal Leader Mark Carney is once again pausing his campaign in the federal election to head back to Ottawa ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected Wednesday announcement of widespread tariffs.
Carney was in Winnipeg all day Tuesday. He started off taking questions from journalists on candidate Paul Chiang’s decision to resign as well as the expected tariffs.
He later visited a restaurant and met with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. Carney also had a phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, with whom he discussed increasing trade between Canada and Mexico. A statement from Carney’s office said the call was “productive.”
Carney stayed in Winnipeg into the evening to speak at a Liberal rally before flying back to Ottawa.
It was the first time Carney was introduced by his wife, Diana Fox Carney, who said that on their first date when the two were in graduate school at the University of Oxford in England, Carney had said he was committed to returning to Canada to work in public service.
Carney called Trump’s tariff and sovereignty threats “the most significant crisis of our lifetime” and that he rejects “any attempts to weaken Canada, to break us down,” adding “that will never happen.”
What does Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ mean for Canadians?
Throughout the campaign, as tariffs and Trump have regularly dominated the conversation, Carney has sold himself as a skilled negotiator because of his experience navigating the 2008 financial crisis heading the Bank of Canada, and Brexit while governor of the Bank of England.
“The first thing in a crisis is you have to distinguish between what you can change and what you can’t. And I’m not sure this is a big insight, but I’m not sure you can change Donald Trump,” he said, adding that his goal was to “re-imagine” the Canadian economy for it to be resilient in the face of the trade war with the U.S.
He reiterated his pledge that his government would use “every dollar” earned through retaliatory tariffs to support workers affected by the trade war.
Someone in the crowd yelled that the U.S. should become the 11th Canadian province to which Carney shook his head, saying, “Nice place to visit; I’m not sure we want that.”
Carney said Americans wanted Canadian resources.
“We’re in Manitoba; they want our water. They want our land. They want our country. Never, never, never because Canada is not America,” he said.
This is the second time Carney has disrupted his campaign schedule in order to respond to Trump’s tariff threats.
Last week, Trump made an unexpected announcement that he would be moving ahead with auto sector tariffs on April 2, which the president has dubbed “Liberation Day.”
Even lesser tariffs on the Canadian auto manufacturing industry could have devastating effects on jobs, experts say.
On Friday, Carney and Trump had a phone call for the first time since the Liberal leader was sworn in as prime minister. Though the two leaders were positive about the call, Carney noted Trump had not backed down on auto tariffs nor other tariffs aimed at Canadian industries.
The breadth of Trump’s announcement tomorrow is still unknown, though the president has made several different suggestions — including a plan to impose a 20 per cent reciprocal tariff on all countries that have imposed retaliatory duties on U.S. goods in response to its trade actions.
Carney said the president identified five “strategic areas” of the American economy where he wants to repatriate production, including pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum, semiconductors, vehicles and lumber.
The prime minister confirmed on Friday that Canada would be moving ahead with retaliatory measures if the April 2 tariffs go ahead.
He said Monday that the government will wait for Trump’s 4 p.m. Rose Garden announcement before showing its hand.
“We will not disadvantage Canadian producers and Canadian workers relative to American workers,” Carney said.
