Prime Minister Mark Carney will not explicitly say whether he trusts U.S. President Donald Trump, and says when he called his American counterpart “transformational” during their Oval Office sit-down, he meant it in both a good and bad way.
Amid Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products and persisting threats to Canadian sovereignty — and after Carney ran a campaign centred on his pitch as the best placed leader to take it all on — the prime minister said simply that he will negotiate with him.
In an exclusive interview with CTV News’ Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos, Carney was asked if he could trust Trump as a partner, and whether he plans to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“I think the revealed preference of the U.S. is working on some of the sectoral aspects before broader trade deals,” Carney said.
“It is an advantage to us that USMCA exists. It is not right that it’s being violated, but it is still an advantage that it exists, and we intend to make the most of our advantages in these negotiations.”
Kapelos then followed up and asked: “Do you trust him?”
Carney responded: “I will work with him and negotiate with him, yeah.”
“Do you trust him?” Kapelos pressed. “Look, my answer is my answer,” said the prime minister.
The trilateral trade pact known as the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement, or CUSMA on this side of the border, is set to come up for review in 2026, but given the current dynamics, talks could be triggered sooner.
Carney has repeatedly said the longstanding bilateral relationship between the two countries, as citizens on both sides of the border have come to know it, is “over,” and is now getting to work diversifying international trade relationships and reducing Canada’s economic reliance on the United States.
On calling Trump transformative
These efforts to set Canada on a new path in earnest come after a trip to D.C. that was widely considered a success, seeing the two world leaders interact positively within the West Wing of the White House.
During their first in-person meeting in front of a room full of politicians, top staffers and reporters, Trump congratulated Carney for “one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics,” and Carney replying with thanks, calling Trump a “transformational president.”
Kapelos asked if he meant transformative in a good or bad way, and the prime minister said: “Yin and yang, there’s both.”
When pressed for what he meant by that, Carney replied: “Look, I said what I said.”
“What matters for Canadians is that the relationship with the U.S. has changed. I’ve been clear about that, clear about that for months. I think others were very slow to recognize that, I think it’s now increasingly understood,” Carney said.
“Secondly, it has bigger ramifications than just the U.S. The way the global economy is working is changing, we need to change. Working with President Trump, working with his team… sovereign nation to sovereign nation, that’s what I’m pursuing.”
The Trump factor in cabinet
Alluding to how Trump and the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade tensions may have informed his cabinet picks, Carney said assigning senior minister Dominic LeBlanc the specific responsibilities of Canada-U.S. trade and “One Canadian Economy” was because “he’s been one of the main, if not the main interlocutor with the level of the U.S. government below President Trump.”
“I don’t want to switch everybody out in that circumstance,” Carney said, defending some of his other moves, such as shuffling Melanie Joly out of foreign affairs and moving Anita Anand in, to replace her.
“There’s experience being deployed in different ways,” Carney said. “I’m a new prime minister… So, we’re bringing in a lot of fresh energy, fresh ideas, fresh perspectives, alongside with experience.”
