What to know
- Prime Minister Mark Carney calls Canada’s ties to the United States “weaknesses” in a 10-minute YouTube address.
- Carney lays out his “Canada Strong” plan, which involves new investment, new partnerships, and regaining control of Canada’s security, borders, and future.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada’s ties to the United States have become “weaknesses” that must be corrected.
On Sunday, Carney posted a 10-minute video to his YouTube account titled, “Forward Guidance with Prime Minister Mark Carney” where he lays out plans to build a stronger Canada.
“The world, as I said earlier, is more dangerous and divided. The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression,” he explains in the video.
“Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct.”
In the video, he promises to never “sugarcoat our challenges” and that this was an opportunity to talk with Canadians “directly and regularly about our plan, why we’re doing what we’re doing, what’s working, what isn’t, and what we’re going to do next.”
Laying out his “Canada Strong” plan, Carney says he’ll foster new investment relationships so “Canadians can build for themselves,” strike new international partnerships so “we can sell into new markets,” and regain control of “our security, our borders, and our future.”
The Prime Minister’s video comes just days after Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, criticized the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA), calling it a “bad deal.”
“I think it needs to be reimagined and needs to be readdressed,” Lutnick said. “There’s plenty of good in it, but there’s a huge amount of bad in it and needs to be reconsidered for the benefit of America.”
He also took aim at Canada’s recent trade deal with China, remarking, “Does he think the Chinese economy is going to buy his stuff?”
Carney developed “a practice called forward guidance” during his time as Governor of the Bank of England to guide the country through the financial crisis.
