Trump says ‘nice gentleman’ Carney will visit White House within the next week

U.S. President Donald Trump says Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit the White House “within the next week or less” as the two countries chart a new way forward following a federal election that was largely seen as a rebuke of the president’s trade war and his 51st state ambitions.

“I think we’re going to have a great relationship,” Trump said Wednesday, where he weighed in on the results of the Canadian election.

“He called me up yesterday and said, ‘Let’s make a deal.'”

Trump and Carney had already agreed the countries would begin negotiations on a new economic and security arrangement, no matter who won Monday’s election.

Trump says Carney will travel to White House ‘very shortly’

The president said both Canadians running for office “hated Trump,” an acknowledgement of the deep rejection of his policies and rhetoric that surfaced during the election.

“And it was the one that hated Trump, I think the least, that won. I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal,” said the president. 

He went on to say Carney “couldn’t have been nicer” and called him “a very nice gentleman.”

The Prime Minister’s Office has not yet commented on Trump’s timeline for this visit.

A readout from the Canadian side of the Carney-Trump call only said the two leaders “agreed to meet in person in the near future.”

A meeting at the White House adds to Carney’s growing to-do list.

A senior federal source said the government is running on two tracks at the moment.

The first is figuring out who Carney will have in his internal team and putting a new cabinet in place before recalling Parliament. The second is moving forward with the Canada-U.S. file and other key ambitions, including his promise to reduce interprovincial trade barriers by Canada Day.

Marci Surkes, a former senior adviser in Justin Trudeau’s government and now chief strategy officer at the consultancy firm Compass Rose, said she’d expect to see a swearing-in ceremony “in the coming weeks.”

“I would expect in this order: a swearing-in of the new ministry, a return of Parliament, potentially a short sitting, during which time there could be a budget, a small budget, a mini budget,” she said.

The House of Commons is scheduled to return May 26 and a source said they expect that will still happen. 

The new Parliament — Canada’s 45th — would start with a Throne Speech, setting out the minority government’s priorities.

“We will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven’t seen in generations,” Carney said in his victory speech early Tuesday morning.

Outside of the major negotiations with Trump, the new Parliament will likely focus on removing interprovincial trade barriers as the country moves to become less reliant on the United States.

Carney also has to deliver on his middle-class tax cut promise. The former central banker kicked off the election by vowing to cut one percentage point off the lowest income tax bracket.

The Liberals fell just three seats short of a majority, meaning Carney will have to work with other parties to get through his agenda. Carney himself will be a rookie parliamentarian, after winning his first seat Monday night in the Ottawa riding of Nepean.

The federal government is also in the throes of planning the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., which will see Carney play host to world leaders this June.