Canada – U.S. November 2025 –

Globe & Mail Canada – U.S. relations

30 April 2026
Canada–U.S. Relations Enter “Second Century” as New Commission Launches Amid Converging Economic and Security Pressures
As economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and shifting trade dynamics reshape North America, a new binational commission has been launched to explore the future of Canada–U.S. relations.
Co-chaired by former Canadian cabinet minister, Lisa Raitt, and former U.S. congresswoman, Jane Harman, the Commission for the Second Century of Canada-U.S. Relations will bring together senior leaders and policy experts from both countries to develop a new strategic agenda for long-term, bilateral cooperation.
The initiative, led by the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the  Centre for International Governance Innovation, launches as the two countries mark 100 years of formal diplomatic relations.
The Second Century Commission will be launched on May 1, 2026, in Washington, D.C., and on May 27, 2026, in Ottawa.
Canadians are using the phrase “Elbows up” to encourage each other to stand up to the United States
Tariffs on Canadian exports and repeated insults by President Donald Trump about Canada becoming the 51st state have Canadians pushing back with. …”Elbows up” [which] is appearing across social media platforms and in protests, encouraging Canadians to stand up and fight back, creating a sense of nationalism for one of the country’s closest neighbors.
AI Overview
“Elbows up” is a popular Canadian rallying cry for national unity, inspired by hockey legend Gordie Howe, meaning to stand strong, be resilient, and not back down, especially in defiance of U.S. tariffs and political pressure, signifying strength, independence, and support for each other

13 July
‘Coin of the Realm’: CUSMA, the Gordie Howe Bridge, and the End of Bilateral Trust
Colin Robertson
(Policy) The Gordie Howe International Bridge should have been the easiest file in Canada-U.S. relations.
Canada paid roughly $6.4 billion to build the bridge. Michigan received a new international crossing, customs facilities and a direct Interstate 75 connection without paying the construction bill.
American workers, contractors and steel producers benefited. Automakers gained a badly needed alternative to the aging Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest commercial border crossing.
The bridge was finished. The agreements had been negotiated. The contracts had been signed.
Then Donald Trump threatened to stop it from opening unless Canada gave the United States more….
Mr. Trump cannot be trusted to honour any agreement negotiated in good faith, considered by all parties to be binding, or even celebrated by him and/or his own administration.
In 2020, Mr. Trump hailed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law.”
… Yet only six years later, Washington refuses to renew the agreement and instead demands another round of concessions.
The United States wants tighter automotive rules, greater American content requirements, changes to Canadian dairy policy, digital regulations, their liquor back on our shelves, and further advantages for American producers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has ignored the spirit — and, arguably, the letter — of the very agreement he once celebrated.
He has imposed tariffs on Canadian steel. On aluminum. On automobiles. On copper. He has threatened “reciprocal tariffs” against countries that already have free trade agreements with the United States. Tariffs have become not exceptional trade remedies but routine instruments of political pressure and economic coercion.
The message is clear.
Under Donald Trump, an agreement is not a settlement. It is merely the opening position for the next negotiation.
The implications extend well beyond CUSMA.
Canada and the United States are also modernizing the Columbia River Treaty, one of North America’s most successful examples of long-term bilateral cooperation. For more than 60 years, it has managed flood control, hydroelectric generation and shared water resources because successive governments accepted that negotiated commitments should outlast changes in political leadership.
If Washington now treats every agreement as simply another opportunity to demand additional concessions, Canadians are entitled to ask whether any bilateral arrangement—including those governing water, energy, borders or critical infrastructure—can be regarded as durable.

12 July
Carney defends US cut of Gordie Howe Bridge profits, says Canada gets repaid first
(MSN) Prime Minister Mark Carney is now defending a revised Canada-U.S. arrangement that gives Washington access to a share of future operating profits. His argument is narrow but important: Canada is not splitting toll revenue before recovering its costs. The money, he says, flows first toward repayment and debt servicing, with only remaining profits subject to sharing for a limited period. That distinction may decide whether the deal is seen as a practical compromise or a costly political surrender.
What Carney Is Actually Defending
Carney’s defence rests on a key distinction that can easily get lost in the political noise: toll revenue is not the same thing as profit. Drivers and truckers will pay tolls, but those funds first have to cover the bridge’s financial obligations, including the costs tied to construction, operations, maintenance, and repayment of Canada’s upfront investment. Only after those obligations are handled does the controversial profit-sharing question begin.
That matters because the public reaction has largely focused on the idea that Canada “paid for the bridge” while the United States gets a cut. Carney is trying to reframe the deal as a limited sharing arrangement after Canada is made whole, not a direct transfer of half the bridge’s income. His message is designed for Canadians who see the project as a national investment, especially in Windsor, where the bridge is more than a policy file. It is a visible skyline-changing structure built beside neighbourhoods, factories, and trucking routes that have waited years for relief.

2 July
Canada’s little‑known role in helping to spur American independence in 1776
Sarah M.S. Pearsall, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
(The Conversation) … It is impossible to understand fully the trajectory of the U.S. in 1776 without comprehending a wider imperial world and what happened in 1775. In fact, the American Revolution ran through Canada.
A broader British North America
In 1775, the first year of the American Revolutionary War, Britain possessed double the famous 13 colonies in North America alone, with many in Canada and the Greater Caribbean – including East and West Florida.

20-26 June
Trump is delaying the Gordie Howe bridge opening. Here’s why it could hurt his own party in Michigan
Experts say bridge’s prominence in Michigan’s senate race could increase pressure on Trump administration
A Michigan Democratic senate candidate has seized on the delayed opening of the Gordie Howe International bridge, turning the controversy into a political liability for U.S. President Donald Trump in a closely watched senate race.
Mallory McMorrow, running in a three-person Democrat primary race, released an advertisement on Wednesday accusing Trump of refusing to open the completed bridge because the Moroun family, which owns the competing Ambassador Bridge, donated $1 million (U.S.) to MAGA Inc.
Gordie Howe bridge to U.S. remains closed as anger mounts over ‘unacceptable’ delays
The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge — built and paid for by Canada — was postponed last week at the request of the Trump administration
For border businesses and truckers, nothing has been more eagerly anticipated than the opening of the new bridge linking Windsor and Detroit. …
The supply chain linking Windsor and Detroit is so integrated that “everybody gets hurt whenever there’s a disruption,” said Peter Frise, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Windsor.
But the existing bridge is outdated, he said. Crews still have to place orange traffic cones by hand to change the direction of traffic before the evening rush.
The Ambassador Bridge handles over $390 million of trade every day, representing 26 per cent of Canada’s exports by road as of 2021, according to Transport Canada.

10 June
Trump threatens not to renew USMCA as Carney talks trade strategy with premiers
He reiterated his stance that the United States doesn’t need ‘anything’ from its USMCA partners.
(Globe & Mail) Mr. Carney did not respond when asked on Parliament Hill about the President’s comment that he’s not looking to renew the trade deal.
He did respond when asked Wednesday morning about his meeting with the premiers, saying briefly that the focus would be on “the U.S. and the electricity strategy,” including Canada’s pledge to double electricity generation in Canada.

5-9 June
Carney says Gordie Howe bridge will open this week, White House maintains Trump’s opposition ‘has not changed’
U.S. president had vowed to block the Windsor-Detroit bridge’s opening
(CBC) Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that the Gordie Howe International Bridge poised to connect Ontario and Michigan will open “at the end of the week,” but a statement from the White House is raising questions about whether that will actually happen.
Date set for opening of Gordie Howe International Bridge to traffic
(Detroit News) The Gordie Howe International Bridge will open to traffic June 15, according to two sources with knowledge of the plans, following eight years of construction and an international standoff that has strained U.S.-Canadian trade and political relations.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is ‘essentially complete.’ The fight over it is not
Document shows decades-long fight to build rival Windsor-Detroit crossing
The Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit has been “essentially complete” since February, but a major lawsuit challenging Canada’s decision to build it may not reach trial until 2027 or 2028, according to a newly obtained [heavily redacted] federal briefing note [dated Feb. 17, 2026 and] prepared for federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson by deputy minister Paul Halucha. …
The internal document also says the bridge has faced 22 legal challenges from the private owners of the rival Ambassador Bridge over the last two decades. Canada has won 19 and only three remain, including the principal case that an Ontario judge ruled will go to trial in late 2027 or early 2028.
23 February
Moroun donated $1M US to Trump-supporting super PAC before Gordie Howe bridge threats
Donation came less than a month before U.S. president’s threat to block bridge’s opening (Trump threats on Gordie Howe bridge opening ‘just insane,’ Windsor mayor says -The Gordie Howe International Bridge is expected to open in the coming months
5 June
Moroun family of Michigan expanding controversial concrete empire to Canada
City councillor ‘absolutely’ concerned
The wealthy Moroun family of Michigan is planning to expand its controversial concrete empire across the border to Canada, records show.
The Morouns, who own the Ambassador Bridge and a constellation of other enterprises, have in recent years expanded their Hercules Concrete business across the Detroit area and beyond, with each location named after characters in Greek mythology.
But some locations have been the subject of intense criticism for allegedly causing community blight and health issues, as well as flouting local regulations, among other things.

5 June
Beyond the Carney Quote: How a Strong Canada Serves America’s Interests
Esnold Jure, a senior associate with the International Development Group and a former legislative fellow at the U.S. House of Representatives. His research and analysis focus on governance, security, and international affairs. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from George Washington University.
(Policy) When Prime Minister Mark Carney said in his speech to the Economic Club of New York on May 28th that “Canada Strong will help make America great again” it prompted a deluge of speculation about what he meant: Was it MAGA dog whistle? Was it an olive branch to Donald Trump ahead of intensified CUSMA negotiations?
With the dust now settling, the reality is that perhaps Mr. Carney meant exactly what he said: that, whoever is leading America, it will be in a much better position, geostrategically, next to a strong, resilient Canada.
For Canada, per the newly revised conventional wisdom that Mr. Carney’s Davos speech reconciles with his Economic Club speech in the Venn overlap of Canada’s ability to walk and its ability to chew gum simultaneously, this means increasing production and developing capabilities the U.S. lacks, to become a more indispensable ally.
Friday, June 5, 2026 | 8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m
Slater Family Canada-US Policy Series
Examining critical & current issues related to constitutional governance in Canada and the US, at the intersection of law and public policy.
At a moment when constitutional democracy faces growing strains on both sides of the border, McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy invites you to “Not Politics as Usual: Challenges to Constitutional Governance in Canada and the United States”. This free, one-day conference brings together leading scholars and practitioners in law and in public policy to examine threats to democracy, constitutionalism, the protection of minorities and the rule of law in both countries and the implications for topics such as migration policy and the securitization of the border; the intersection of trade, law and tariffs; judicial independence, and the politicization of freedom of expression and academic freedom.

2 June
Canada Makes New US Trade Proposals But Warns ‘Turbulence’ Ahead
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
– Canadian cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada made new and detailed proposals on trade to the US based on negotiating progress in recent weeks.
– LeBlanc refused to share details of the proposals but downplayed suggestions that Canada was being left behind Mexico, and warned that talks could still take a negative turn.
– Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, and LeBlanc discussed how they can work together on issues that strengthen the competitiveness of the North American economy with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Canada made new and detailed proposals on trade to the US based on negotiating progress in recent weeks, said Canadian cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc.
“A strong, prosperous Canadian economy is good for North America, and we discussed how we can work together on a number of issues that strengthen the competitiveness of the North American economy,” he said at a press conference in Washington after a meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

30 May
Canada’s broader citizenship rules draw strong American interest, data shows
New law in effect from December allows descendants of Canadians beyond first generation to claim citizenship
Nearly half of new approvals are Americans, Canada’s immigration agency says
Americans’ interest in Canadian citizenship partly fueled by US political divisions, lawyers ​say
(Reuters) – While U.S.-Canadian relations have frayed under U.S. President Donald Trump, data on ‌Canadian citizenship approvals under recently widened rules suggests many Americans would welcome the chance to become Canadian.

26 May
MAGA Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, Doesn’t Know Where Canada’s “Anti-American” Mood Came From. Let Me Explain – I’ll Use Small Words, Pete.
Trump’s ambassador went on Radio-Canada, played dumb about tariffs, lied about who’s behind the booze ban, invented a province, and called us “unfair.” Then said he “loves defending America every day.
Dean Blundell
Hoekstra sat down with Radio-Canada’s Laurence Martin at the embassy in Ottawa this past week and delivered a performance so dense with self-pity and so allergic to facts that it deserves its own genre. He doesn’t understand the anti-American sentiment. He’s disappointed in us. He finds it so very hard to locate a Canadian “passionate about the American-Canadian relationship.

20 May
Bob Rae: The Permanent Joint Board on Defence and the Slide from FDR to Trump
(Policy) The announcement this week from the Trump administration that it is unilaterally “suspending” its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence (or Defense, to Americans) after 88 years opens a new source of contention between our two countries.
Above all, it serves as a potent reality check from a country whose geopolitical loyalties have been shifting for years from the rules-based order that reflected Roosevelt’s values to the autocratic one that offends them all.

11 May
Leftie leaders sleepover in Toronto
America is cooked. Now what?
(Politico Canada Playbook) That was the general thesis and question driving conversations at the invite-only Global Progress Action Summit inside the Toronto’s Royal York hotel on Saturday, enticing senior global progressives to suit up on the weekend.
— The mood: A reunion and memorial for the U.S.-led democratic order … with high-end catering.
“I’m just trying to purge our vocabulary of pretty much anything that starts with the prefix re-, like restore, rebuild, most of all, return,” said speaker former Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG. Because it’s not going to be like that, he added. “And it shouldn’t.”
— The bait: Former President BARACK OBAMA headlined Canada 2020’s 20th anniversary gala in the same ballroom the night before, which hosted the Public Policy Forum’s gala the night before that.
Many Obama dinner guests returned the next morning as progress summit attendees. They scooped egg-white frittata and vegan coconut and quinoa porridge from the breakfast buffet, exchanging observations about Obama’s fireside with DIANA FOX CARNEY. He arrived an hour late.
— Reporter’s notebook: It was a friendly crowd for visiting Democrats to reassure allies with Trump “counter-programming,” as Slotkin put it, and test pitches for the primaries.
“Somebody’s more likely to experience the American dream of social mobility in Sweden than they are in America,” said Buttigieg, quipping he may use that line on the campaign trail.
For your radar
THE OTHER LEFTIE POWER VACUUM — Obama told his Toronto audience he’s likely going to have to again get involved in the primaries because there’s no clear Democratic leader on the offing.
— Same team: Buttigieg, whose midterm strategy is to be everywhere, was in the room.
No photos or recordings were allowed of Obama’s Friday evening remarks and media were barred access to the event. Three attendees told Playbook the former president shared that while he wants a more private life, he recognizes he has a massive audience that could help Democrats in the midterms. …

1 May
What Canadians Are Grudgingly Learning From Trump’s Undiplomatic Ambassador
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has spent a year enraging Canadians. Is a détente now possible?
(Politico) The video playing was clearly Pete Hoekstra, the frequently combative U.S. ambassador to Canada. But something was off. He kept referring to Canada as a partner?
… “Pay attention to Pete Hoekstra,” said a Canadian official familiar with Canada-U.S. trade negotiations. “I know he’s easy to hate and vilify, but some of the shit he says is channeling what the administration wants.” This official, like several others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a delicate relationship.
Hoekstra also may have come to realize that he’s had some challenges getting his message out to a skeptical population. In addition to the relative olive branch in his remarks calling Canada a partner, he’s been venturing out to meet people across the nation’s provinces, including vocal critics.
Hoekstra said his job is to deliver America’s message to Canada and “address the things that we believe are unfair in the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.”

5 April
Trump’s respect for King Charles possibly quashed desire to annex Canada, says royal commentator
U.S. president was unaware Charles is Canada’s head of state, Robert Hardman writes in new book
(CBC) The book, titled Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story is written by British journalist Robert Hardman … It’s a profile of the late former queen, who Trump speaks glowingly about, and touches upon King Charles’s reign.
An excerpt provided to CBC News includes conversations between Hardman and the president where Trump brought up his interest in taking over Greenland.
Trump desired land closest to U.S. border
When Hardman told Trump that King Charles is indeed Canada’s head of state, the U.S. president said Canada has “terrible politicians” and that most Canadians live just above the U.S. border.
“The problem is some guy drew that straight line to make a border. He should just have drawn it fifty miles further north and then there wouldn’t be a problem,” Trump said, according to Hardman.

28 February
Canada supports U.S. actions in destroying Iran’s nuclear program, Carney says
PM also says Canada not participating militarily and wasn’t part of military buildup
(CBC) Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada supports at least one component of the American mission: destroying Iran’s nuclear program.
“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from threatening international peace and security,” Carney said in a speech at the Canada-India Growth and Investment Forum in Mumbai on Saturday.
“Canada’s position remains clear: The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.”

12-13 February
Democrats launching probe into Trump, Lutnick links with Moroun after Gordie Howe bridge threat
(CBC) Democrats in Washington say they’re launching an investigation into the Trump administration and its links to the Ambassador Bridge’s owner after the U.S. president threatened to block the opening of the competing Gordie Howe International Bridge earlier this week.
The top Democrat on the House oversight committee has requested that the administration turn over a wide range of records related to the new bridge, as well as any communications with Matthew Moroun.
“It appears that you have chosen to protect a politically connected billionaire donor family at the expense of promoting American commerce,” California Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking member, wrote in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week.
Trump Has a Bridge He Wants to Sell You
The president’s closure of a trade route from Detroit to Windsor will help a billionaire and hurt basically everyone else.
By Jonathan Chait
(The Atlantic) On the surface, this looked to be just one more Trumpian tantrum, the kind that regularly pops up when he sees something distressing on television or is spoken to by a woman without the self-abasement he demands.
But subsequent reporting suggests that this was something even worse: an episode that sums up Trumpian economics in all its stupidity and atavistic sleaze.
Hours before Trump’s post, according to The New York Times, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Matthew Moroun, the owner of a competing bridge between Michigan and Ontario. Lutnick then spoke with the president by phone. You might wonder why a major international bridge has an owner when such things are ordinarily in public hands. The answer is that the Ambassador Bridge was privately constructed, and for decades has stood as the sole trucking link from Detroit to Windsor, a key thoroughfare for national and international commerce. If you want to travel from Michigan to, say, Boston, your fastest route runs through Canada.
The Ambassador Bridge gets clogged with traffic and charges expensive tolls, which Moroun is able to compel because his customers have no practical alternative. A separate tunnel connects Detroit and Windsor, but larger trucks can’t use it. Moroun’s family has spent decades and millions of dollars trying to keep things that way, relentlessly lobbying to block construction of a second bridge desired by drivers and merchants on both sides of the Detroit River. …

13 February
Jamil Jivani’s POTUS pop-in
(Politico Canada Playbook) With the fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on the line, Conservative MP JAMIL JIVANI is positioning himself as a key cross-border interlocutor.
Jivani has a direct link to the upper reaches of the White House through his Yale BFF, Vice President JD VANCE. His network means he doesn’t need help from the U.S. or Canadian embassies to get access to senior officials.
Jivani even scored a White House tour that culminated in a Trump run-in. Not bad.
“I am a backbencher from Bowmanville-Oshawa North, but I think last week proved that I can get in front of the right people,” Jivani told Playbook on Thursday, following a recent four-day trip to Washington where he discussed Canada-U.S. relations with stakeholders.

11 February
U.S. House votes to end some of Trump’s tariffs on Canada in rare rebuke by Republicans
(Globe & Mail) The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to end some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, with a handful of Republican legislators delivering the White House a rare rebuke by joining the Democratic opposition to pass the measure.
The 219-to-211 vote – in which six Republicans broke with Mr. Trump – is mostly symbolic: Even if it passes the Senate, the President will almost certainly veto it, a move that would require a two-thirds majority of each chamber of Congress to override.
But it signals a growing willingness by Mr. Trump’s once unfailingly loyal party to defy him on one of his signature policies amid mounting voter disapproval of his handling of the economy and the inflationary effects of his trade war.
As the vote unfolded on Capitol Hill Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social in a last-ditch bid to stave off defeat. He threatened that Republicans who voted against his wishes would “seriously suffer the consequences come Election time” and lashed out at Canada.
“Canada has taken advantage of the United States on Trade for many years. They are among the worst in the World to deal with, especially as it related to our Northern Border. TARIFFS make a WIN for us, EASY,” he wrote.
White House expects ‘substantial’ GOP defections on Canada tariff vote in House
(Politico) A White House official said that while the administration is talking to House offices Wednesday in an effort to defeat the measure, “our expectation is that the effort will not be successful.”
House Is Set to Vote on Canceling Trump’s Canada Tariffs
Republican leaders have blocked challenges to President Trump’s trade war for a year, but dissent in their own ranks will force a vote.
(NYT) The House is set on Wednesday to consider a Democratic-written measure that would rescind tariffs President Trump imposed on Canada last year, taking a largely symbolic but politically consequential vote that Republicans have fought for a year to prevent.
… the measure’s movement through the House reflects frustration among some G.O.P. lawmakers about Congress continuing to cede its authority over trade matters to the White House, and concern that voters are being hurt by the levies.

9-11 February
Trump’s Gordie Howe bridge bellyflop only boosts Canada’s stock
Lawrence Martin, Public affairs columnist
some other Americans argued, Ottawa blew it. All the government had to do was name the bridge after him – call it the Gordie Howe-Donald Trump Bridge, or something – and he’d be up there cutting the ribbon, saying it was the most magnificent bridge ever built.
(Globe & Mail) After Donald Trump came out this week with his latest instalment in his Browbeat Thy Neighbour series – his dip into Loo Loo Land with his Truth Social threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge – I was keen to check in on the American reaction, from readers in both conservative and liberal media.
Out of about 1,000 comments I read, I could only find 20 or so that sided with Mr. Trump – about one in 50. All the rest were in Canada’s corner.
The level of disgust with the mad king was extraordinary. With his tariffs, his annexation talk, and his other cross-border insults, there was opposition among Americans, though not as much positive Canada talk as might have been expected.
Mr. Trump’s bridge outburst provided remarkable symbolism. Vowing to block a big, beautiful entry passage from his northern neighbour, the great friend to his country, fit perfectly with his ugly American persona.
…All this reaction came even before The New York Times published a story on what triggered his eruption. A member of the Moroun family, the billionaire owners of the nearby Ambassador Bridge, reportedly lobbied Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and spoke with Mr. Trump on Monday. That apparently was all it took to get him to do the rage-post. That’s how much this President is beholden to his billionaire buddies who support him.
This news prompted former Alberta premier Jason Kenney to tweet: “With Trump it’s not the ‘art of the deal.’ It’s always the art of the grift.”
Trump Throws Childish Tantrum Directed at Canada
(Raw Story newsletter) Trump has turned his attention northward, making demands that would be laughable if they weren’t coming from the President of the United States. In a Truth Social post, Trump threatened to block the opening of the new Gordie Howe Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit unless Canada handed over partial ownership. The $5.7 billion bridge was funded entirely by Canadian taxpayers, who will recoup costs through tolls. Trump also claimed that Xi Jinping would “terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada” if Prime Minister Mark Carney made a trade deal with China. Canada’s former environment minister Catherine McKenna responded simply: “It’s all a grift.”
Economist Dean Baker summed it up perfectly: Trump negates trade pacts with Canada and then gets upset when Canada looks elsewhere for partnerships. Kick your allies in the teeth, then complain when they find a better deal.
Carney speaks to Trump after U.S. president erupts over Gordie Howe bridge
(CBC) Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to block the opening of the new international bridge between Windsor and Detroit, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that he told Trump Canada paid for the construction of the bridge, the governments of Michigan Canada share ownership, and steel and labour from both countries was used in its construction.
Trump threatens to block new bridge in latest tirade against Canada
President says Gordie Howe Bridge will open only when US is ‘fully compensated’ – and makes bizarre hockey claim

6 February
The Globalization of Canadian Rage
By Stephen Marche, the author, most recently, of “The Next Civil War.” He wrote from Toronto, where he lives.
(NYT Opinion) The defiance against America that has consumed Canadian life for over a year now has finally spread to the rest of the West. The message of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos last month — that of a “rupture in the world order” — was not new for Canadians. Just after his election in April, Mr. Carney declared that “our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over.” At Davos, the moment caught up with him, and with Canada.
Throughout last year, the consensus among many European policymakers in the face of Donald Trump’s bombast was to wait out the nonsense and appease when possible. Mr. Carney’s speech arrived at the exact point at which that position proved untenable:
… Coming to terms with this reality has not been easy in Canada. American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug; it’s hard to break the habit of thinking of Americans as the good guys. For Canadians, what is unfolding in Minnesota and elsewhere is happening to our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, our kin — it is happening to people we love and understand better than anybody. But “the rupture,” as Mr. Carney calls it, is nothing more than seeing clearly. Today, it’s America that poses a threat to our freedom and democracy. Not China. Not Russia. America.

5 February
Trump Issues Five Trade Demands—Mark Carney Rejects Every Single One
Ahead of the looming trade review that will decide the future of the most important economic agreement in North America, Washington put five non-negotiable demands on the table. Dairy. Digital media. Provincial alcohol rules. Government procurement. Energy policy.
Five demands meant to signal dominance.
Mark Carney looked at the list and said no to all of them.
Not “let’s talk.” Not “we’ll revisit.” Not even a symbolic concession. Every demand was rejected—cleanly, publicly, and with purpose. And that wasn’t defiance. It was strategy.

Carney Stakes Canada’s Auto Future on E.V.s as It Pulls Away From the U.S.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced several measures Thursday aimed at making Canada a global leader in electric vehicles and rescuing an industry ravaged by U.S. trade policy.
(NYT) Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced on Thursday a sweeping plan to offer billions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks for auto industry investment designed to help turn Canada into a global leader in electric vehicles.
The new policies, Mr. Carney said, were meant to transform Canada’s economy and make it less reliant on a single trade partner after President Trump’s economic assaults and threats on Canada’s sovereignty have frayed relations between the two nations.
“We must take care of ourselves,” Mr. Carney told reporters at an auto parts factory near Toronto. “We cannot control what others do.”
Canada’s auto industry, which employs about 125,000 workers, is vital to the country’s economy and is closely intertwined with the United States. Mr. Carney’s effort to stake the country’s future to electric vehicles is part of his campaign to stand up to the United States, which has won him plaudits at home and abroad.

4 February
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani’s Washington trip faces skepticism in Ottawa
When asked about the Bowmanville-Oshawa North MP’s trip to the U.S. capital to meet with political and business figures, Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed out that Jivani is neither the minister of international trade nor the Conservative trade critic.
(iPolitics) Jivani is a longtime friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance. In a video posted to social media Tuesday, the MP said he has “something to offer to help build bridges of communication between our two countries.”
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said she hopes Jivani speaks in the U.S. about the closure of an automobile plant in Ontario.
Trump has said he does not want vehicles made in Canada to be sold in the United States. Last week, General Motors cut the third shift at the Oshawa, Ont., plant that produces pickup trucks. It shut down production at its plant in Ingersoll, Ont., last year.
” (Jivani) represents people working at GM in his riding,” Joly said in Ottawa. She called on the MP to promote “the interest of the workers at GM that are facing … unjustifiable tariffs by the American administration.”

3 February
Ex-leader Harper says Canada should make ‘any sacrifice necessary’ to preserve independence from US
(AP) — Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday the country should make “any sacrifice necessary” to preserve the independence of the country in the face of threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Harper, a Conservative prime minister for nearly a decade from 2006 to 2015, made the remarks in a speech during his official portrait unveiling.
Harper described the times as perilous and thanked current Prime Minister Mark Carney for attending the unveiling “at a time when challenges are unprecedented during our lives.”
Harper didn’t mention Trump by name but urged Canada’s two major parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, to unify in the face of threats to the country’s sovereignty.

29-30 January
Andrew Coyne: Donald Trump wants to make an example out of Canada. How will we prepare?
… There has been much talk of what we need to do externally to give ourselves greater bargaining power – of the need to develop options, in trade, and allies, in defence and security matters. All well and good. But we need also to pay much more attention to strengthening our own internal resilience – our capacity to endure whatever the Trump administration might throw at us.
That’s not only or even primarily about military capacity. That’s about capacity generally: state capacity, to be sure, but more broadly, societal capacity. The point of the measures described above, especially in the havoc-creating end of things, is to cause pain, to induce panic, to sow divisions and, ultimately, to force capitulation. Our exposure in this case is not only a function of our proximity to the U.S., but our own internal weaknesses.
Addressing those weaknesses will require us to face up to some hard choices that we have preferred to put off until now. We have, for example, tolerated for many decades what most democratic countries do not: the proposition that the country can be forced to negotiate its own dismemberment at any time, by a simple vote of one of the provinces – with the result that we now face the possibility of such a vote in two of them.
We are already divided, economically, by hundreds of interprovincial trade barriers – barriers that do not just weaken us economically, but contribute to our political divisions. Hitherto we have relied on the provinces to negotiate an end to these, with predictably derisory results. Is this something we can still tolerate, under the circumstances? Or is it time for the federal government to do what federal governments do in most federations, and knock down those barriers unilaterally?
Our transportation, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure is stretched thin, literally and figuratively: We are, as we have been called, a horizontal Chile, with obvious choke points and obvious vulnerabilities. Protecting these is clearly an imperative – but so is improving our ability to function in the event that these come under attack.
Can we, in a crisis, rapidly mobilize the materials and manpower needed to bring it under control? Can we, in so doing, reduce the societal cost of externally imposed shocks of this kind, signal to others our ability to endure them, and so make it less likely they will be tried? And if not, what do we need to do to make this possible?

Trump’s threat to decertify Canadian-made jets could hamper U.S. operators, analytics company says
(Globe & Mail) U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to decertify Canadian-made aircraft in the United States could hamper the services of several U.S. airlines and aircraft operators, according to Cirium, an aviation data company.
Mr. Trump made the threat on Thursday night on social media, along with a warning he would slap 50-per-cent import taxes on planes made by Bombardier Inc. and other domestic manufacturers. He made the declaration in an apparent reaction to the Canadian aviation regulator’s move to review changes to U.S.-made Gulfstream business jets.“Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made, we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Where appropriate, aviation authorities certify aircraft for safety reasons, including updates or changes to existing models. Canada is reviewing electronics changes to Gulfstream G700 and G800 models the company made to increase its range and payload, said John Gradek, who teaches aviation leadership at McGill University.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told CBC the Gulfstream’s certification process is under way, and the demands for approvals were made “recently.” “We believe that this can be resolved,” Ms. Joly said. “The certification process is something we don’t politicize.”
Reuters reported a Trump official said the President did not mean to say Canadian-made aircraft in operation are decertified. Presumably, it would affect new aircraft made in Canada by Airbus SE, Bombardier, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada and helicopter maker Bell Textron Inc., as well as their U.S. customers
Trump targets Bombardier, raising risks for Quebec’s aerospace sector
The U.S president is threatening to impose a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian-made aircraft.
U.S. President Donald Trump has opened a new front in his trade spat with Canada by threatening to impose a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian-made aircraft and to decertify planes built in the country unless Ottawa agrees to approve a series of jets produced by a U.S. manufacturer.

29 January
Canada Signs Auto Deal With South Korea, Moving Further From the U.S.
(NYT) The agreement, while scarce on details, is the latest step by Prime Minister Mark Carney to reduce Canada’s reliance on trade with the U.S.

27-28 January
Ian Bremmer: Trump, Canada, and the future of the free world (video)
Are US-Canada relations broken?
– Yes, and the damage is permanent. This isn’t a one-off policy spat. Mark Carney had been managing Trump well – better than most. Then he upstaged him at Davos, and Trump lashed out. Though the 100% tariffs he’s threatened will never actually be imposed, the trust that defined the closest relationship the United States has with any country is now gone.
– What happens in Canada won’t stay there. This rupture is reverberating across the entire world. Countries that once trusted US commitments now see Washington as not just unpredictable but increasingly unreliable and even directly hostile. European allies are watching.
– China is the principal beneficiary. Canada is now deepening trade ties with Beijing. Europeans are hedging beyond NATO. Much can be done to limit the fallout, but a return to the trust and alignment that bound these alliances before Trump is off the table.
Ian warns that “so many countries around the world find the Americans less predictable, less reliable, less trustworthy.” He highlights tensions over tariffs, trade deals, and diplomatic missteps, noting that Canadian leaders like Prime Minister Mark Carney are seeking to hedge their country’s bets by strengthening ties with Europe and China.
Looking at the broader picture, Ian questions what remains of the free world, emphasizing that while the US remains one of the most powerful countries, trust and coordination among allies are weakening.

27 January
Paul Krugman, How Canada Became an Enemy
It’s not about trade, it’s about ego
(Substack) … To some extent it’s about national power. By making a trade deal with China, Canada is somewhat reducing its dependence on the United States. And Trump doesn’t want that.
More importantly, this is about Trump’s ego. Although he will never admit it, Trump is obviously aware that the speech Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, gave at Davos was hailed around the world for its courage and clarity, while his own rant was widely seen as evidence of his cognitive decline. So Carney must be humiliated.
One tell about Trump’s real motivation: In his post threatening prohibitive tariffs, he called Canada’s leader “Governor Carney” — surely a reference to Trump’s delusions about making Canada the 51st state, not a reference to Carney’s former career as a central banker. Gratuitously insulting foreign heads of state isn’t something you do if you’re trying to achieve policy goals, but it is what you do if your whole purpose in life is to dominate and demean everyone around you.
So, is Trump actually going to follow through on his threat? I’ve argued that people invoke TACO — Trump always chickens out — far too much. All too often he doesn’t chicken out. However, given how devastating an all-out trade war with Canada would be for some U.S. industries, TACO may be a good bet in this case. Furthermore, Trump is getting crazier by the day, promising vengeance on so many people and institutions that it’s unlikely that he or anyone in his administration can even keep track of his threats. Yesterday he threatened new tariffs on South Korea, another erstwhile ally.

23 January
Canadian return trips from the U.S. plunge again amid tensions
Canadian airlines are avoiding travel to the United States, with new data highlighting a 14 per cent drop year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025
Canadian resident return trips to the U.S. fell 23.6 per cent on average in November compared with the same month in 2024.

22 January
Trump says he’s withdrawing invitation for Carney to join his Gaza ‘Board of Peace’
(CBC) In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump said Carney had been uninvited from joining the initiative.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump wrote in his post.
… In his own World Economic Forum address, Trump complained that Canada should be “grateful” for the U.S.
“I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful — they should be grateful to the U.S., Canada. Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said Wednesday.
“Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” Trump said in reference to Carney’s speech — though the prime minister had left Davos at that point.

Mark Carney Says Firmly That ‘Canada Doesn’t Live Because of the United States’
The Canadian prime minister spoke after returning from the World Economic Forum where he urged middle powers to team up in resisting President Trump.

Canadian land travel to the U.S. fell more than 30% in 2025
Statistics Canada says 7.6 million fewer Canadian automobiles travelled to the U.S. in 2025
Statistics Canada says border data for 2025 has been compiled.
… Compared to 2024, the number of Canadian automobiles that went to the U.S. and back last year fell by 30.9 per cent.

21-22 January
‘Canada thrives because we are Canadian’
Carney bites back at Trump’s ‘Canada lives because of’ U.S.’ remarks at cabinet meeting
Canada’s ‘values must be fought for’ in a moment of democratic decline, says prime minister
For the second time this week Prime Minister Mark Carney took aim at Donald Trump — this time directly biting back at the U.S. president’s “Canada lives because of the United States” comments.
On Wednesday Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he complained that Carney should be grateful because “Canada lives because of the United States.”
At the end of a nearly 30-minute speech Thursday kicking off the Liberal cabinet meeting in Quebec City, Carney took on the president’s comments.

19 January
What does Donald Trump actually want from Canada? Here’s what experts say
By Daniel Otis
(CTV) While Trump says the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian products, he has also repeatedly expressed a desire to turn Canada into a “cherished” state. Before leaving office, former prime minister Justin Trudeau suggested the Trump administration was really after Canada’s natural wealth. Trump and U.S. officials are also pressuring Ottawa on a range of issues like dairy supply management, border security, drug trafficking and defence spending.
Trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada have, meanwhile, ground to a halt. When asked earlier this week about renewing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement (CUSMA) he championed during his first term, Trump said it was “irrelevant to me.”
Asa McKercher, research chair of Canada-U.S. relations at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, characterizes Trump’s recent comments as a negotiation tactic.
“I think he wants a position in which the United States gets a lot from Canada and doesn’t have to give up a lot in return,” McKercher said. “I think the United States does need Canadian natural resources, obviously it needs thirsty Canadians to drink its liquor and it needs cold Canadians to visit its beaches and other tourist spots.”
Aaron Ettinger, a political science associate professor at Carleton University, says Trump’s interest in Canada goes beyond any single issue.
“Trump’s foreign policy is about asserting domination over everyone he can and subordinating all other interests to his own, which he perceives as synonymous with the American national interests,” Ettinger told CTVNews.ca. “Nothing Canada can do on any individual file will satisfy Trump.”
Canada’s natural resources and critical minerals …
Defence spending and border enforcement …
Dairy, alcohol and digital markets …
Dominating the hemisphere
Ettinger says the issues and “trade irritants” brought up by the U.S. are “incidental to Trump’s overarching need to dominate Canada.”

2025

26 December
‘The year that the shoe dropped’: Canada-U.S. relationship in 2025
(Global) The people anxiously sipping hot chocolate in the Canadian Embassy in Washington on a cold night in January almost a year ago couldn’t have predicted the roller-coaster of trade provocations and bilateral blow-ups the next 12 months would bring.
In hindsight, that unusually chilly Washington evening foreshadowed how the Canada-United States relationship would soon freeze over.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his talk of annexing Canada had already rattled Canadian politics over the preceding weeks. A rushed trip to Mar-a-Lago in early November 2024 failed to mend former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s already rocky relationship with the incoming U.S. president.
On Jan. 20, the day of his second inauguration, Trump returned to the Oval Office to announce his “America First” trade policy. Just weeks later, he announced sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports.
Trump’s tariffs — which don’t apply to goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA — hit Canada in March.
They were boosted to 35 per cent in August as Trump complained about Canada’s retaliatory tariffs and supply management in the dairy sector, and claimed Ottawa hadn’t done enough to stop the very modest cross-border flow of fentanyl.
The president’s separate Section 232 tariffs on specific industries, such as steel, aluminum, automobiles, copper and lumber, have also hit Canada hard.
The speed and scale of Trump’s trade war with the world caught everyone off guard, said Fen Osler Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations.
While the president toned down his annexation talk after Carney’s election, every deadline for a trade deal since then has come and gone, with no clear progress.
Carney suspended Canada’s digital sales tax, tightened border security, dropped most retaliatory tariffs and boosted defence spending in an unsuccessful effort to get Trump to drop his tariffs.
Carney and Trump complemented each other and bantered for the news crews during two cordial meetings at the White House. Media reports suggested in mid-October some sort of framework for a deal easing tariffs was in the works.
It all went sideways in October when Trump, offended by an Ontario-sponsored TV ad quoting former U.S. president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs, shut down trade talks.

22 December
Prime Minister announces next Ambassador of Canada to the United States
The Prime Minister, Mark Carney, today announced that Mark Wiseman will become the next Ambassador of Canada to the United States, upon presentation of his credentials.
With a career spanning three decades in law, business, and finance, Mr. Wiseman has deep experience with both countries’ economies, financial markets, and institutions. He has a strong track record of unlocking new opportunities for Canadians, including as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, and as a current member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations.
Once he becomes Ambassador as of February 15, 2026, Mr. Wiseman will be a key contributor to the government’s efforts to advance Canada-U.S. priorities,

18 December
How a trade war rewired Canada–U.S. economic ties
The row between governments…created headaches for B.C. business owners who sell to U.S. customers.
(BIV) B.C.’s lumber industry was particularly hard hit. It has since the 1980s had disputes with the U.S. on softwood lumber tariffs that Canada successfully challenged at the World Trade Organization.
In 2025, the U.S. more than tripled its tariffs and duties on B.C. softwood lumber to more than 45 per cent, heightening industry exasperation. …
Data show British Columbians are increasingly eschewing travel to the U.S., with the political tensions often cited as a reason for their reticence to head south.
The polling firm Ipsos in September found most Canadians (56 per cent) were buying more Canadian products, while most (58 per cent) were also avoiding buying American products due to the state of U.S.-Canada relations.
Alcohol importers among those caught in crossfire
The Buy Canadian movement worked well for many merchants but not all.
Some Canadian businesses remain unable to buy some U.S. products to resell because of government bans on selling those products.

12 December
Why Canada is winning the travel trade war with the U.S.
(RCI) …a deepening decline in Canadian visitors to the country, which started when Trump took office in late January (new window) and launched his trade war, eventually began to take its toll.
Overall, between February and October, the number of return trips by Canadians to the U.S. declined by 21 per cent for air travel and by a staggering 33.5 per cent for land travel, according to Statistics Canada data provided to CBC News.
The U.S. Travel Association, a non-profit industry organization, now paints a less-than-stellar picture for 2025: It forecasts (new window) a 3.2 per cent decline in international tourism spending in the U.S. compared to 2024 — a loss of $5.7 billion US.

27 November
US-Canada Relations Have Hit Rock Bottom
The Trump administration’s policies have damaged the economies of both countries, says former U.S. Ambassador to Canada James Blanchard.
(Washington Monthly) A month after President Donald Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan, the two countries have yet to resume negotiations.
Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he’ll restart talks “when it’s appropriate,” telling Reuters that “he did not have a pressing issue to address with President Donald Trump.” Instead, Carney has been courting US rivals China and India to lessen Canada’s dependence on the United States, and the country has set a goal of doubling its non-US exports by 2035, according to the Washington Post.
The rift between America and its ally to the north is “the worst in modern history,” says former US Ambassador to Canada James Blanchard. And it’s no wonder. Trump has threatened to annex Canada as the “51st state,” and mocked former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as its “governor.” He’s blamed the country for flooding America with fentanyl and illegal immigrants, though neither charge bears resemblance to reality. And he’s levied punitive tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, among other exports, all the while accusing Canada of “cheating” on trade.

23 November
‘Cultural break’: U.S. senators say relations with Canadian neighbours are suffering
‘But the deeper problem is the cultural break,’ says U.S. senator from Maine
(CBC) The tariffs imposed on Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump have clearly caused economic pain for Canada, but a U.S. senator from Maine says he’s more worried about how Canadians are reacting on a personal level.
The annual Halifax International Security Forum that opened Friday has attracted more than 300 delegates from around the world, including politicians, academics, government officials, military leaders and non-government organizations.
The focus of this year’s conference is democracy, but questions about Canada-U.S. relations touched off a heated debate on Saturday morning when King and three other American politicians were asked to talk about their country’s place in the world.