Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is prepared to make his biggest gambit yet against Donald Trump as he launches retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
The Liberal leader will announce tariffs against the US on Tuesday as he accuses Washington of trying to subordinate Canada.
Trump, meanwhile, has told Canadian leaders to ‘fall in line’ or face consequences ‘far WORSE’ than existing tariffs.
Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed Friday when Carney withdrew from negotiations just hours before Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on $20billion worth of Canadian goods were due to take effect.
Both leaders have traded shots with Carney suggesting that Canada has to fight back against a bullying Trump.
‘You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,’ he told Canadians. ‘We’re going to hit back.’
Trump lashed out Monday and declared Canada will ‘no longer’ be treated so kindly.
‘Canada has been ripping off the United States for years,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post.
‘On trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst nations in the world to deal with. They feel entitled and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!’
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (pictured) is prepared to make his biggest gambit yet against Donald Trump as he prepares retaliatory tariffs against the United States
Trade talks collapsed on Friday night, when Carney withdrew from negotiations hours before Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on $20billion worth of Canadian goods were due to take effect
Carney said earlier Monday that Canada may need to move away from matching US tariffs dollar for dollar and instead use more targeted retaliation aimed at protecting Canadian workers and businesses.
‘An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States’ is ‘not something we´re going to accept,’ Carney said.
Carney was even more blunt in French.
‘We learned during the negotiations that the Americans want to destroy our major industries, including autos, steel and aluminum,’ Carney said.
‘That was one of the main reasons we said no. It was a bad deal.’
The prime minister’s actions amount to a show of defiance on behalf of a traditionally allied, smaller nation against the United States.
‘Carney is signaling to Washington that the old assumption that Canada is a country that will accommodate, that we will go along to get along, it is no longer true,’ Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, told The Washington Post.
‘Because Carney’s very polite and professional, they thought that he would be a pushover.’
The prime minister’s actions amount to a show of defiance on behalf of a traditionally allied, smaller nation against the United States
Carney was elected on a promise to prevent Canada from bowing to Trump, who has suggested for most of his second term that the country become ‘the 51st state’ in addition to tariff threats.
Carney wasn’t the only Canadian to fire rhetorical shots across the border to the formerly friendly nation.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has told Donald Trump to ‘kiss my a**’ and threatened to cut off America’s electricity supply in response to the President’s latest tariffs.
Ford said Canada should be ready to ‘throw everything in the kitchen sink’ at the US President as the trade war between the two neighbors intensified on Monday.
‘He’s arrogant. He’s cocky,’ Ford said in a radio interview just hours after Trump announced fresh tariffs targeting Canada’s auto industry.
Ford warned that Ontario could cut off electricity exports if the President continued squeezing Canadian manufacturing.
‘We power 1.5 million homes and businesses,’ Ford told the Associated Press separately. ‘Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes.’
‘[Trump] better have a pack of batteries,’ Ford added.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford (pictured) has told Donald Trump to ‘kiss my a**’ and threatened to cut off America’s electricity supply in response to the President’s latest tariffs
Trump responded in a social media post by attacking Ford personally, calling him ‘the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford,’ and once again referring to Canada’s prime minister as ‘Governor Carney.’
‘The USA will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada,’ Trump wrote.
Ford dismissed the insults: ‘If you think an insult from him hurts me? Well, bring it on, buddy, I´m ready.’
Vice President JD Vance offered a quip of his own during a speech in Maine on Monday.
‘Canada and China have been the two worst countries when it comes to trade policy anywhere in the world. What a shame that is. I would not expect that from Canada,’ before referring to Canada as ‘a state’ and calling it ‘a Freudian slip.’
He also said the neighbors to the north would be invaded by a foreign country ‘were it not for the umbrella of protection from the United States.’
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and three other Cabinet ministers are also expected Tuesday morning to share details of supports for workers affected by tariffs.
The fiery words from both sides show how US-Canada relations have deteriorated since Carney walked away from trade negotiations.
Vice President JD Vance offered a quip of his own during a speech in Maine on Monday
Canada and the United States share one of the world´s largest trading relationships, with deeply integrated supply chains across autos, energy, agriculture and manufacturing, making a prolonged trade fight potentially costly for businesses and workers on both sides of the border.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that ‘the only reason Canada has auto production in the first place’ was because of the 1960s Auto Pact, under which Canada used access to its market to encourage vehicle production north of the border.
Carney cast doubt on the US’ dependability, saying Canada was finding reliable partners ‘everywhere in the world, except in the United States and Russia.’
Carney said Washington’s auto-sector proposals would gradually have the effect of dismantling Canadian production.
‘This is the most successful automotive partnership in history,’ Carney said, referring to the deeply integrated Canada-US industry.
Ford is a Progressive Conservative whose party differs from that of Carney, a Liberal, but the two underscore broad political unity in Canada over the trade fight with Trump.
Ford said ‘everything is on the table’ if the dispute worsens, including cutting off electricity and critical minerals from Ontario.
Critical minerals are increasingly important to US national security and manufacturing.
Canada and the United States share one of the world´s largest trading relationships, with deeply integrated supply chains across autos, energy, agriculture and manufacturing, making a prolonged trade fight potentially costly for businesses and workers on both sides of the border
The Pentagon has sought more secure supplies of minerals used in military aircraft, missiles, munitions and electronics as Washington tries to reduce reliance on China, which dominates the mining or processing of several strategically important minerals.
Ford said Canada should also consider increasingly severe retaliation if Trump continues targeting Canadian industries, including oil and potash, while Ontario could raise electricity prices or stop sending power south.
Ford has used electricity as leverage before. During an earlier phase of the dispute, Ontario imposed a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota and New York.
Trump responded by threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum before both sides backed away .
Ford accused Trump of not simply seeking a better trade deal but aiming to hollow out Canadian industries and move production south.
Ford said Trump wants to make Canada a vassal state.
‘He wants to bleed out every single sector and bring them down to the U.S.,’ Ford said.
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney watches as Ontario Premier Doug Ford tightens a screw at the Darlington Energy Complex in Courtice, Ontario, Canada, last year
Rolled coils of steel sit in the yard at the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario
Ford said he understood Washington had sought language late in the negotiations that would have restricted Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries without US approval.
Carney has called that demand unacceptable and a question of Canadian sovereignty.
The prime minister said the dispute also exposed a deeper divide over language and culture, saying protections for French and Canadian culture that Washington views as trade irritants are considered fundamental rights in Canada.
US and Canadian officials negotiated for roughly a month before the agreement, which both sides said was close, broke apart just before the finish line last week.
Trump had extended the negotiating window on August 19, when the tariffs were originally due to take effect, saying it was ‘based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!’
But the extension failed to produce a deal, with Washington and Ottawa now blaming each other for the collapse.
American officials blamed Canada for introducing new demands late in the negotiations, including calls for lower rates on heavy trucks.
‘Despite the US offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,’ said Greer.
Transport trucks cross the Ambassador Bridge into the United States of America, in Windsor, Ontario
People rally in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
‘Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week.’
Carney and other officials have in turn blamed the Trump administration for changing its demands.
‘Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses,’ Carney said in a statement on Saturday shortly after the new rates went into effect.
The PM said its retaliatory tariffs targeting US goods would go into effect on September 8. The new rates target US steel, dairy, agricultural equipment and other sectors.
The fallout could raise prices further ahead of the midterm election as US voters are already wary of inflated costs.
In 2025, the US and Canada traded an estimated $869.7 billion in goods and services, according to the USTR.
Concerns over the economy have come to the forefront of US politics ahead of the US midterm elections.
A July Gallup survey found that 22 percent of respondents rated the US economy as ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’
Another 32 percent of respondents called the economy ‘fair’ and 44 percent described it as ‘poor.’
Meanwhile, Democrats across the country have honed in on this concern and campaigned on making things more affordable.
Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi show Democrats favored to win control of the House in the midterms, while Republicans retain a narrow edge in the Senate.
If Republicans lose either chamber, Trump could face greater difficulty advancing his policy priorities through Congress, as legislation would require support from at least some Democrats.
