COQUITLAM — Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Thursday he did not mischaracterize his first conversation with Donald Trump when he neglected to report that the U.S. president had again brought up his idea of making Canada a U.S. state.
Carney came under fire from some of the other main party leaders after a CBC/Radio-Canada article, citing confidential sources, said Trump pitched Carney on the benefits of Canada joining the U.S. during their March 28 phone call.
When Carney first spoke to reporters in Montreal shortly after the call, he described the discussion as "cordial" and said Trump treated Canada with respect as a sovereign nation.
Pressed by reporters Thursday on whether he was being truthful in that description, the Liberal leader acknowledged that the U.S. president did bring up annexation — and that he's stuck on the notion.
"He absolutely did. Look, 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," Carney said on Thursday.
Carney insisted his initial description of the call was correct and said he made it clear to Trump that Canada would never become a U.S. state.
"I'm not even going to say the word he used to use about my predecessor," he said. "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, and that is how it was reported back — and that's absolutely accurate."
Trump toned down his rhetoric toward Canada following his conversation with Carney, after months of needling former prime minister Justin Trudeau by calling him the "governor" of America's next state.
Earlier Thursday, before Carney spoke, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accused the Liberal leader of not being "totally straight up" with Canadians about what Trump said.
"He said that Donald Trump respected our sovereignty. Now it’s come out that he instead actually brought back up the 51st state and threatened our country in that call," Singh told reporters in Winnipeg. “If he’s not going to tell us about a phone call, what about the details of the negotiation? What about what he’s willing to trade away?”
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet called Carney's original description of the call a political "stunt" meant to enhance his image as a negotiator.
"It appears that it never happened — that the call was not what had been described afterwards, that there was no agreement, no support for Canada's sovereignty, no beginning for a deal. Just the show of a man who wanted to pretend something which appears not to be true," Blanchet said in Dorval, Que.
In a post on Truth Social following his conversation with Carney, Trump said it was "an extremely productive call."
"We agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada," the president wrote on March 28.
At an evening rally in Saskatoon, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Carney of lying in an attempt to bolster his election chances and distract from past Liberal policies.
"We cannot trust Mark Carney and the Liberals to a fourth liberal term. Because if they're lying about this, they'll lie about inflation and taxes and housing costs and crime and everything else that matters in our daily lives," Poilievre told the crowd.
Trump's shadow loomed large over the federal election again on Wednesday when he remarked in the Oval Office that Canada would "cease to exist" without the U.S. — and claimed Trudeau told him so privately.
With just days left until election day on April 28, Trump also said he doesn't want Canada to play any role in the American auto industry and warned that auto tariffs on Canada could go up.
"I really don't want cars from Canada," Trump said. "When I put tariffs on Canada, they're paying 25 per cent, but that could go up in terms of cars."
Carney sought to capitalize on Trump's comments Thursday by underscoring the economic threat the president poses. He said his government has already "anticipated the depths" of the crisis by planning $2 billion in industry supports.
"The president's comments yesterday … just underscore how important the choice (is) that Canadians have on Monday," he said. "Who can stand up to President Trump? Who can build Canada strong? Who has the experience in order to do that?"
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in an armchair discussion in Toronto on Thursday that he feels like "jumping through the television" when he hears Trump say the U.S. doesn't need Canadian goods — including the more than one billion barrels of oil Canada exports to the States every year.
“Sometimes, I think the cheese slips off the cracker with this guy,” Ford said. “He wakes up in the morning and even his people around him are not too sure what he’s going to do or what he’s going to say.”
Steve Verheul, Canada's chief trade negotiator from 2017 to 2021, said Thursday at the same Public Policy Forum conference in Toronto that Canada faces especially tough negotiations with the U.S. after the election on Monday.
But he said it "would be wrong" to conclude that Canada won't sign another preferential trade agreement with the U.S — even as tensions run high over Trump's extreme positions.
"We will have particularly difficult negotiations on key sectors that (Trump) has identified as being strategic: steel, aluminum, autos, various others," Verheul said.
"But for some of this talk about how we need to forget about the U.S. market and look to our domestic market and export markets — the U.S. market will be back."
After the press conference, Carney headed to Winnipeg for a rally.
Earlier in the day, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh campaigned in the city, where the NDP holds two seats.
Winnipeg polling firm Probe Research reported Thursday that the NDP has been trailing the Liberals and Conservatives in the city since February, but a recent recovery in their popularity could see them hold both their Winnipeg seats as well as a third seat in northern Manitoba.
The Conservatives currently hold two seats in Winnipeg and the Liberals four. The Liberals are hoping to take another four ridings—two Conservative seats and two NDP.
That includes Winnipeg Centre, currently represented by NDP MP Leah Gazan, where Carney held an event Thursday afternoon. Thomas Naaykens, who the party is hoping will unseat Raquel Dancho in Kildonan–St. Paul, kicked off the rally.
Among those in the audience at the Pyramid Cabaret in Winnipeg was Laura Forsythe and her daughter. Forsythe said they also attended Singh’s rally the previous evening, but she had already voted Liberal.
Forsythe pointed to Carney’s previous work during crisis moments, including when he was governor of the Bank of England during Brexit.
“Those are… crises that he was able to manage, and I think that right now in our country we're also on the brink of a crisis, and he sounds like someone who I would like to have running our government.”
Her daughter, 13-year-old Harris, agreed. “I do think that right now we're in a place where we need someone who can actually not roll over to our enemies…like former allies who seem to be turning against us.”
Polling aggregator 338Canada predicts the Liberals and Conservatives will win six ridings in Manitoba each, and the NDP will hold onto two.
— With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa, Anja Karadeglija in Coquitlam, B.C. and Winnipeg, Allison Jones in Toronto, and Jack Farrell in Saskatoon.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2025.
Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press
