\t\tRead: 2 min<\/p>\n
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hit back Thursday at President Donald Trump\u2019s inflammatory claim at the World Economic Forum that \u201cCanada lives because of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada doesn\u2019t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian,\u201d Carney responded in a national address in Quebec City ahead of a new legislative session, even as he acknowledged the \u201cremarkable partnership\u201d between the two nations.<\/p>\n
Trump appeared to shoot back later Thursday on his Truth Social platform, withdrawing an invitation for Canada to join the \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d \u2014 his self-styled billion-dollar body for resolving global conflict.<\/p>\n
A government source said Monday that Canada will not pay to be on the board, although Carney had indicated he would accept an invitation to join.<\/p>\n
The rhetorical back-and-forth between the two leaders underscores growing tensions between the allied nations.<\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s speech on Thursday followed his remarks at the forum of political and financial elites in Davos, Switzerland, where he won a standing ovation for his frank assessment of a \u201crupture\u201d in the U.S.-led, rules-based global order.<\/p>\n
That speech on Tuesday, which made world headlines, was widely viewed as a reference to Trump\u2019s disruptive influence on international affairs, although he was not mentioned by name.<\/p>\n
Carney told Davos that middle powers like Canada who had prospered through the era of an \u201cAmerican hegemon\u201d needed to realize that a new reality had set in, and that \u201ccompliance\u201d would not shelter them from major power aggression.<\/p>\n
Trump took umbrage, and taunted Carney during his own speech a day later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn\u2019t so grateful,\u201d the U.S. president said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alliances \u2018redefined, broken\u2019<\/p>\n
In Carney\u2019s speech on Thursday, aimed at a domestic audience, he said that Canada should serve as a model in an era of \u201cdemocratic decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada can\u2019t solve all the world\u2019s problems, but we can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history isn\u2019t destined to be warped towards authoritarianism and exclusion,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n
While Carney has not been shy of criticizing Trump since he took office nine months ago, he heads a country that remains heavily reliant on trade with the United States, the destination for more than three quarters of Canadian exports.<\/p>\n
Key Canadian sectors like auto, aluminum and steel have been hit hard by Trump\u2019s global sectoral tariffs but the impacts of the levies have been muted by the president\u2019s broad adherence to an existing North American free trade agreement.<\/p>\n
Negotiations on revising that deal are set for the start of this year and Trump has repeatedly insisted the United States doesn\u2019t need access to any Canadian products \u2014 which would have sweeping consequences for its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n
Trump has also repeatedly threatened to annex Canada, and this week posted an image on social media of a map with Canada \u2014 as well as Greenland and Venezuela \u2014 covered by the American flag.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Carney said Canada was not under any \u201cillusions\u201d about the precarious state of global relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is more divided. Former alliances are being redefined and, in some cases, broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing his government\u2019s plans to ramp up defence spending, Carney said \u201cwe must defend our sovereignty [and] secure our borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada, he further said, has a mandate \u201cto be a beacon, an example to a world that\u2019s at sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read: 2 min Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hit back Thursday at President Donald Trump\u2019s inflammatory claim at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56713,49,48,44,87366],"class_list":["post-430135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-afp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-politics-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}