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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford put the focus on making Canada globally competitive rather than securing a trade deal with the United States as they met in Ottawa on Monday.
Carney and Ford were meeting on Parliament Hill as trade talks with the United States show little signs of progressing.
Ford was asked by reporters after the meeting Monday what he felt the chances were for a tariff-free deal with the United States, but he said U.S. President Donald Trump’s behaviour was “unpredictable.”
“He’ll come out with some cockamamie thing tomorrow that we don’t even know about, right?,” Ford said in response.
“I’ve always said that we can never predict what Donald Trump is going to do, but … we can create the environment and the conditions for companies to come here and invest.”
Trump imposed blanket tariffs of 35 per cent on Canadian products that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade at the start of the month, in addition to tariffs targetting sectors such as steel and aluminum.
Ford went on to speak about the need to use Ontario-made steel from companies such as Algoma in future infrastructure projects like a hypothetical pipeline.
“We have to beat (Trump) at his own game and make sure that we’re more competitive and onshore as many products as possible,” he said.
Ford said that nothing concrete came out of the meeting, but he told reporters that he and Carney are “on the same page.”
“We’re united on the message of, “Let’s start worrying about how we can be competitive here.'”
Carney did not speak to reporters on his way out, but on his way into the meeting, he said the pair will focus on aspects of the Canadian economy that “we can control.”
“We’ll talk about the housing sector, we’ll talk about steel, auto, new sectors of the economy (like) artificial intelligence, what we’re doing in terms of making Canada competitive,” Carney said.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc was also on Parliament Hill Monday morning and did not stop to answer questions as reporters followed him through the hall. Carney said LeBlanc was set to provide an update about the status of trade talks with the Americans.
Ford is in Ottawa for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, which runs until Wednesday.
Trump has been preoccupied in recent weeks trying to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. On Monday he is set to hold a series of meetings at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, several European leaders and NATO’s secretary-general.
Carney is not attending those meetings.
— With files from Sarah Ritchie and Catherine Morrison in Ottawa and Allison Jones in Toronto
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
