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Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he should not have been dismissive of reporters’ questions about speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump, conceding he used “a poor choice of words.”<\/p>\n
Carney dodged questions about the last time he spoke to his U.S. counterpart Sunday, saying ‘who cares?’ when pressed in Johannesburg, South Africa, after the G20 summit.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had discussions. I’ve been busy,” Carney said when asked about connecting with Trump. “He’s got other things to do and we’ll re-engage when it’s appropriate.”<\/p>\n
Asked again to detail when he last spoke to Trump, Carney said: “Who cares? I mean, it’s a detail. I spoke to him. I’ll speak to him again when it matters.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | Carney admits ‘poor choice of words’:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764105368_973_default.jpg\")
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Carney admits ‘poor choice of words’ when saying ‘who cares’ about Trump meeting<\/p>\n
Following a question from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney told the House of Commons that ‘when I make a mistake, I\u2019ll admit it.’ Carney was referring to saying ‘who cares’ when asked about his stalled conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Carney offered a mea culpa after\u00a0facing an onslaught of criticism from the Opposition Conservatives.<\/p>\n
“When I had the great honour from my constituents of being elected to be a deputy in this House, unlike some others in the chamber today, I made a promise to Canadians that when I make a mistake, I’ll admit it,” Carney said, making a dig at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who lost his Ottawa-area seat on election night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That was a poor choice of words about a serious issue. And the serious issue is what progress are we making structurally,” Carney said, before going on to tout the relatively\u00a0low U.S. tariff burden on most Canadian goods.<\/p>\n
Canada-U.S. trade talks broke down abruptly last month after Trump\u00a0lashed out at Canada for Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad campaign<\/a>\u00a0that invoked Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Carney told CBC News on Monday he is considering a trip to Washington next week to attend the draw for the FIFA World Cup, which Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are jointly hosting in 2026.<\/p>\n That draw, set to take place at the Kennedy Centre, the performing arts centre Trump\u00a0now personally controls<\/a>, will determine the group-stage matches for that major soccer tournament.<\/p>\n Poilievre, meanwhile, said Carney’s dismissive answer is a sign that he is not taking the tariff fight seriously and has dropped his “elbows up” approach to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Workers on the line care, Canadians care. Why doesn’t the prime minister care?” Poilievre asked in question period.<\/p>\n Poilievre said Carney’s trips abroad haven’t produced meaningful results to this point \u2014 tariff rates with the U.S. are actually higher now than they were when he was first elected.<\/p>\n Carney said Poilievre is wrong and he needs to “check his numbers,” adding Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, has agreed to drop 95 per cent of its tariffs on Canadian goods after cutting a free trade deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n