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THUNDER BAY — Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back on Thursday against senior members of the Trump administration who have been claiming his government tanked trade talks in the eleventh hour for political reasons.
“I don’t think, with all respect, appointed, unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics,” Carney said at a news conference in Thunder Bay.
He was there to announce a $4.7 billion contract for Alstom’s Thunder Bay plant to build passenger cars for VIA Rail. He took time to note that in the past VIA’s rail cars were built in the United States, but no more, another sign of the deteriorating relationship between Canada and its southern neighbour.
Tensions between the United States and Canada have escalated since the breakdown in trade talks last month.
The United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on an array of Canadian goods, from hockey sticks and cement to honey. Canada is set to roll out its retaliatory duties next week.
Soon after Carney’s comments, President Donald Trump posted on social media that it “is very good for Canadian Politicians like Prime Minister Carney to make President Donald J. Trump ‘the enemy,’ until their Economy collapses, then it will prove to be very bad for Politics.”
“Worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian Politician. Just watch!” Trump added.
Canadian and American officials have been in a messaging war since negotiations were frozen, with each side blaming the other for last-minute demands that made a trade deal untenable.
Carney has said the United States “proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits to Canada, calling into question the reliability of any deal.”
He has cited what he described as U.S. demands that would have limited Canada’s ability to make trade deals with other countries or protect the French language.
Both sides have said tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks were a sticking point. Americans have said Canada’s negotiators brought up issues with Trump’s sectoral tariffs on that industry late in trade talks, while the Canadian side has said relief from those duties was always on the table.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was on multiple U.S. news stations this week claiming Canada added “crazy ideas” in the final hours of negotiations in order to terminate trade talks for domestic political reasons that would benefit Carney’s Liberals.
Lutnick told Bloomberg News he asked his Canadian counterpart if they were trying to blow up the deal on purpose and claimed they responded, “I’m not allowed to say that.”
“They decided for political reasons — domestically, domestic Canada — they’d rather fight with Donald Trump,” Lutnick said. “Even if it’s bad for the economy of Canada, for their political ambition to get certain elections.”
Lutnick — echoing other Trump administration members, including United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer — said the U.S. was not interested in “French nonsense.”
Multiple reports have said Lutnick inserted himself into the negotiations and communicated with Carney numerous times before talks dissolved.
Lutnick was also a key figure behind the delayed opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the changes to the bridge revenue agreement.
When asked last month by CNN whether the U.S. made changes in the final hours of trade talks, Trump responded, “That sounds like me.” Members of his administration claimed the president was just talking off the cuff.
Carney said Thursday that there were “red line” issues on which the Trump administration was taking a “take it or leave it” attitude right up to the final moments of the talks.
“Now they’re not,” he said.
“All of a sudden, they don’t care about Canadian language or culture and those elements. Well, if they didn’t care, they shouldn’t have kept them in the deal.”
Carney said Canadian negotiators weren’t looking for an “easy win” but instead wanted a deal that was durable. He said Canada is ready to sit down and strike that deal when the Americans are ready.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.
— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington
Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
