Murray Wood: Conservative floor crossers could hand Mark Carney a majority government
Murray Wood says Prime Minister Mark Carney is happily accepting floor crossers from the Conservatives, but maybe it's t...
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney expects to speak with the U.S. president at a World Cup event in Washington next week, but he’s cautioning Canadians not to read too much into the conversations between the two leaders.
Carney said Wednesday that trade negotiations with the United States have not restarted.
He also said that he spoke with Donald Trump on Tuesday, but warned that he didn’t want to make too much of the conversation, which he said “was not newsworthy.”
“This is the kind of thing I didn’t want to get drawn into, which is every little exchange,” he told reporters.
“There are substantive meetings and conversations and negotiations, and that’s not what I’m alluding to, to be clear.”
Carney was speaking in Ottawa where the Liberal government announced additional support for the domestic steel and lumber industries, both of which are being hit hard by the U.S. tariffs.
Trump cut off trade talks with Canada in late October, citing frustration over TV advertisements the Ontario government was running in U.S. markets using 1987 remarks from former U.S. president Ronald Reagan to highlight the downside of tariffs.
Trump also threatened to hit Canada with an additional 10 per cent tariff in response, after the Ontario premier kept the ads running through weekend broadcasts of the World Series.
Those tariffs have never materialized and Trump has never been clear about what they would apply to.
At the time, Carney had said Canada was close to securing some kind of a deal with the U.S. following months of negotiations on the tariffs targeting the steel, aluminum and auto sectors.
The breakdown happened weeks after Trump publicly praised Carney during a meeting in the Oval Office, and just as the leaders were about to fly to Asia to attend a pair of international summits.
Trump told reporters during the trip that he didn’t intend to talk to Carney “for a while.”
“I’m very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada. We’re going to let it ride,” the U.S. president said on Oct. 27.
Carney and Trump sat down to dinner on Oct. 29, among of a small group of world leaders hosted by the South Korean president, where Carney apologized for the Ontario ad campaign.
Last week, while on another international trip, the prime minister landed himself in trouble at home when he responded to a reporter’s questions about when he last spoke with Trump by saying, “Who cares?”
After criticism from the opposition, Carney conceded this week that response was a mistake and said his choice of words was poor.
Next week’s event in Washington is the final draw for the FIFA World Cup, which is being co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Carney said it’s “an important event for Canada.”
“I’ll see the president around there, but I don’t want to over-signal things,” he said.
“What matters is the negotiations, when they re-engage. They haven’t re-engaged yet, so that’s the fundamental point.”
He added that Canada is ready to re-engage on those trade talks when the Americans are.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2025.
Sarah Ritchie and Nick Murray, The Canadian Press
