Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that U.S. officials need to “stop trying to be tough” and get serious if they want to resolve the trade standoff between Washington and Ottawa.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa about negotiations over automobile tariffs, Carney said, “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.”
“Look, it’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy,” he added.
The comments follow weeks of escalating provocation between the two governments. After Canada suspended trade talks on Aug. 21, President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario — a body of water that forms part of New York’s northern border with Canada’s Ontario province — “Lake America.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and War Secretary Pete Hegseth piled on with their own social media jabs at Canada. Bessent wrote that Canada could not go “tit-for-tat” with the size of the American economy. Hegseth posted a photo of two female Canadian military members with the caption “this is real.”
Asked to respond to the Cabinet secretaries mocking Canada’s military, Carney said simply, “It’s beneath their office.”
What’s Actually Blocking a Deal
Carney laid out specific sticking points beyond the online sniping. He cited demands he said would restrict Canadian sovereignty and future trade deals, along with terms he said would lock Canada into an uncompetitive arrangement on autos.
“The issues with respect to language and culture — enough to not have to deal,” Carney said. “The issues Mr. Gray just asked about, with respect to restrictions on future trade deals, restrictions on our sovereignty — enough not to have a deal. Issues with respect to locking in an uncompetitive, trade arrangement in our key industries, automobiles being one of them — enough to not have a trade deal.”
He went further, saying the U.S. approach in the talks treated Canadian industries as if they should effectively become subsidiaries of American ones, or be wound down gradually. “We’re not going to accept those terms,” he said.
Trump responded to Canada’s suspension of talks by accusing the country on Truth Social of wanting “the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” He also claimed Canada has been taking advantage of the U.S. by charging tariffs on American farmers.
Carney called the U.S. view of the relationship “misguided,” arguing Washington needs both Canada and Mexico to keep its auto industry competitive. “The United States auto industry is made stronger by the Canadian and the Mexican auto industries,” he said. “And at a time of big, big change in auto, it’s important that we work together. That’s why I say yes, there is a mutually beneficial deal.”
Door Still Open, But Not Wide
Carney said talks had been converging on parts of a workable deal before things fell apart. “There were elements of that mutually beneficial deal that we were moving towards, which is why we were still at the table. But we never viewed that we had that deal. And it diverged towards the end. At some point, maybe it’ll converge again,” he said.
He told Canadian lawmakers that the relationship with the U.S. will not “go back to normal any time soon,” calling it “a new normal that we have to get adjusted to.”
Canada has already matched U.S. tariffs on goods including steel and lumber with its own “dollar for dollar” levies, set to take effect Sept. 8.
The White House is not backing down. “Canada was offered the most generous trade deal of any of America’s trading partners despite being overwhelmingly reliant on access to the American economy, which is over 12-times larger than Canada’s economy,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. “Canada rejected that deal to demand continued one-sided access to the American market with no reciprocity. President Trump was given a resounding Election Day mandate to put American workers, farmers, and businesses first, and the Administration will continue to deliver while lowering costs for everyday families.”
The offices of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Treasury Department, the Pentagon and the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
