Carney heads to Washington with low expectations amid U.S. tariff pressures

Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed back to Washington on Monday ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Carney’s meeting with Trump is set for Tuesday and comes after the U.S. president hiked duties on steel, aluminum, autos and lumber.

But even before the meeting takes place, political experts say the prime minister’s office is lowering expectations.

The prime minister’s office says Carney’s visit will focus on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.

“The prime minister’s office seems to already be lowering expectations for this meeting — saying, you know, it’s basically a working meeting on security and economic issues. But really, he’s gotta come away with something. And realistically he needs to, maybe not get a full agreement with Trump, but get some of the tariffs lowered,” said political analyst Keith Leslie

The planned visit comes as Carney is under pressure at home to negotiate some tariff relief for Canada as levies on cars, steel, aluminum, lumber and energy continue to bite his economy.

“Let’s hope we don’t make any more concessions. We eliminated the digital services tax on the big tech guys that Trump wanted gone. We reduced or got rid of most of our retaliatory tariffs and yet we came out with him hiking more tariffs in another area. Trump is a bully, he’s acting like a bully. And Canada, let’s face it, we can stand up to the bully. But I don’t know if there’s much we can make him do to make him back down completely,” said Leslie.

Premier Doug Ford spoke at a Unifor rally yesterday, imploring the prime minister to stand up for Ontario workers.

“We will not waiver. A message to the prime minister – you’re going down there Tuesday, you better fight like hell. Don’t roll over and keep fighting,” said Ford.

President Trump’s tariff policies have also affected the Canadian workforce, as unemployment hit more than seven per cent in August. That’s the highest mark since May of 2016 when excluding the pandemic period.

Experts say Trump’s unpredictability continues to be a problem.

“All of it seems just back of the napkin, just come out of the blue sort of stuff. It’s hard for negotiators in any country, let alone business leaders to try and prepare and know how to deal with this stuff. You just sort of have to wait and deal with it as it comes,” said Leslie.

Trump is busy at the moment – negotiating peace between Israel and Gaza, and dealing with situations in Portland and Chicago. Is Canada even on his radar?

“How distracted is he going to be with that going on? On the other hand, it’s an opportunity for Carney to show that he supports a two-state solution for peace that he’s putting forward,” said Leslie.

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