Press reports from Canada suggest satisfaction with yesterday’s meeting between Prime Minister Carney and President Trump. As the Globe and Mail reported, there were no breakthroughs but also no blowups. Given recent events, that’s considered a win. Most notable is the personal politics of the encounter. Trump made no secret of his dislike of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while making it very clear Carney was more his cup of tea.
Mark Carney was elected as Prime Minister of Canada just over a week ago largely on the judgement of voters that he was the best person to deal with Trump after the relationship between the two countries had become tense. In addition to Trump imposing punishing tariffs on Canadian imports, he relentlessly baited Canada by calling it the 51st state, stating outright that its status as a sovereign nation was unnecessary, and calling then-Prime Minister Trudeau governor (as if Canada were already a state) to make his point as only a man in love with frat-boy humour could do.
As former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England and international finance big brain, Carney seems to be someone Trump feels he can respect – a worthy opponent perhaps. The implications of that respect, though not immediately clear as a result of yesterday’s meeting, could be that the temperature can now come down. With that, it is possible real progress can be made on issues that matter like tariffs, defence spending, and the border.
Before stepping down as prime minister, Trudeau had become very unpopular as was reflected in public polling, which had him at times down by about 25 points to his closest rival Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. Trudeau was first elected in 2015 and as is common in Canadian politics, a leader starts to become unwelcome after that long in power. Also true is that Trudeau’s brand of unctuous, overly emotional, intellectually light, performance-centred style of politics had begun to wear on Canadians. Carney, though a member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, was deemed sufficiently serious to lead the country, to be able to stand up to Trump, and was duly election.
There is almost nothing that separated Carney from Trudeau in terms of the substance of their criticism of Trump, of his actions and statements. Clearly the quality of the bearer of the message mattered. At least on that one score, Canadians may have chosen well.
Retired political staffer/civil servant. Dual U.S./Canadian citizen writing about politics and the arts on both sides of the border.