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Prime Minister Mark Carney is pushing back against remarks made by U.S. cabinet ministers who’ve insulted Canada and its military, saying the comments are “beneath their office” and urging them to drop the tough talk and take trade negotiations more seriously.
Carney made the remarks a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared Canada’s navy to a now closed ride at the West Edmonton Mall and days after U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said Canada is “a country that doesn’t have a military.”
“Its beneath their office,” Carney said on Tuesday outside of his own office, where he held a brief scrum to comment on the Liberal Party’s sweep of three byelections on Monday night.
“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions. But look, it’s not constructive, but that is their democracy,” Carney said.
WATCH | Carney tells U.S. to ‘stop doing memes’:
Carney to White House: ‘Stop throwing shade,’ return to trade talks
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canadian negotiators are ready to resume trade talks with Washington once the U.S. administration ‘stops acting tough.’ Carney’s comments come after repeated jabs at Canadian sovereignty and its armed forces from U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet following failed negotiations to reach a bilateral trade deal in August.
Since trade talks between Canada and the U.S. fell apart on Aug. 21, U.S. President Donald Trump and his cabinet have taken to insulting Canada on social media and trolling Canadians by renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
Beyond Bessent and Duffy, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth mocked Canadian military cadets online on Tuesday and the White House posted an AI-generated video of Canada geese with Trump-like hair marching with guns.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew have both pushed back against Trump, with Ford inviting the U.S. president to “kiss my ass” and Kinew comparing Trump to an “over the hill” band playing out their last days in a casino.
Carney said he pulled Canada’s negotiating team late on Aug. 21 after the U.S. side introduced “last-minute changes” that the government deemed “unfair” and “uneconomic.”
Those demands, Carney said the day after talks stopped, would have restricted Canada’s ability to sign trade deals with other countries and undermined subsidies to French-language media and the requirement for bilingual product labelling.
The prime minister also said that the auto deal the U.S. wanted to strike would have degraded the industry over time, something he could not accept.
WATCH | Canada won’t accept core industries being ‘subsidiaries’:
Canada won’t accept core industries being ‘subsidiaries’ of the U.S., Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the attitude of the U.S. in recent trade talks was to put forward terms that would put key Canadian industries in a subsidiary position, or would put in place terms that Carney says would see ‘core’ industries ‘gradually wound down’ in Canada — something Carney said his government was not going to accept.
Carney repeated on Tuesday that any one of those demands was enough to walk away from the trade table, but suggested hope for a deal remains.
“There is a positive opportunity that has always existed with the United States for a mutually beneficial trade deal that respects Canadians’ sovereignty and respects our right to protect and promote the Quebec culture and the French language, but it must have those characteristics,” Carney said.
Hours after the deal fell apart, the U.S. hit Canada with 50 per cent tariffs on about $28 billion worth of Canadian exports. Carney then announced that Canada would match those tariffs dollar for dollar beginning Sept. 8.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is scheduled to meet with Bessent on Tuesday afternoon at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, N.C.
Speaking ahead of that meeting, Champagne said Canada needs to be “serious but also constructive.”
“I think [Bessent] has clearly understood the message from Canada,” Champagne said. “We have key sectors and key industries in Canada that we want to protect, and they know that we’re firm in our positions.
“So that’s how we see the current situation and that’s how I am going to approach my discussions with the secretary this afternoon.”
Champagne also said that in his meetings with representatives of other countries at the G20, he pitched Canada as a source of food, energy and critical mineral security in a changing world.