Ottawa, ON – In January, Mark Carney declared that “you cannot ‘live within the lie’ of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.” It was a claim he repeated in an address on YouTube, telling Canadians that “our close ties to America have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct.”
Yet by the end of last week, Carney reversed himself, saying that it’s “in Canada’s interest, in our joint interests to be stronger together” with the Americans. At a Parliamentary committee, his hand-picked Ambassador to the US said the government’s plans to diversify “does not mean abandoning our relationship with the United States of America … It actually means growing it to our economic benefit.”
In fact, far from endorsing Carney’s ‘rupture’ thesis, Mark Wiseman went further by saying that “North American integration must continue to support shared prosperity.” Instead of ‘weakness’, Wiseman said “our economic ties with the United States are deep and vast” and the close relationship “brings tremendous benefits to Canada.”
While Carney compares himself to a military general who defended against American invasion and says that bilateral relations with hegemons are “performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination”, Wiseman told Parliament that “our defence relationship with the United States – by far, the largest military power in the world – is seamless, which is essential to Canada’s security.”
As the Prime Minister reiterates that “rupture means that things aren’t normal … Things have changed. Things have changed fundamentally,” his Ambassador attempted to assure Americans that nothing had changed, saying at committee, “our relationship with the United States is not over. We are adjacent to the United States. We are adjacent to the largest market in the world. That is a huge benefit for Canada and one that we have to nurture.”
After a week of contradiction, Canadians are left wondering what their government’s strategy is with the Americans. One year after promising “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election,” there has been no plan for a deal and no details on whether negotiations are even being held.
Does Carney’s rupture mean no renewal of CUSMA? Does our relationship with America being a weakness mean he no longer wants to remove tariffs on our steel, aluminum, automobiles and lumber? Asked seven times at committee, Wiseman refused to say there were formal negotiations with the US Administration to remove section 232 tariffs.
Or is the government’s position that Canada should “secure stable and preferential access to the entire North American market,” as his Ambassador said was his first objective in a CUSMA review? Without a plan or goals for negotiations, Canadians are left without answers or results.
Since last year, tariffs on steel and aluminum have doubled, and recently broadened to include all products that contain Canadian steel, while tariffs and duties on softwood lumber have tripled. The 2.6 million Canadians who rely on trade with the Americans deserve a plan, not constant contradiction, endless concessions and sensationalist rhetoric detached from reality.
Conservatives will make Canada stronger at home and build unbreakable leverage abroad to secure tariff-free trade.