President Donald Trump said he held an “extremely productive call” with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday.
“I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
It was the first time the two leaders have spoken.
On Thursday, Carney said the “old relationship” with the U.S. “is over” while vowing to engage in a renegotiation over a trade agreement.
Carney, 60, won the Liberal leadership this month with 86% of the vote after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down.
In an address to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday, Carney offered a blunt rebuke to the Trump administration as it prepares to slap a 25 percent tariff on foreign car imports — a move the prime minister said won’t go unanswered.
“The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military co-operations, is over,” Carney said.
He continued: “What exactly the United States does next is unclear. But what is clear is that we, as Canadians, have agency. We have power. We are masters in our own home. We can control our destiny. We can give ourselves much more than any foreign government, including the United States, can ever take away.”
He added: “We can deal with this crisis best by building our strength right here at home. It will take hard work. It will take steady and focused determination from governments, from businesses, from labour, from Canadians. We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States. We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere. And we will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”
Carney vowed a “broad renegotiation” of Canada’s trade and security ties with the U.S., marking a sharp departure from the conventional diplomacy that has long defined cross-border relations.
“We will fight back with everything we have to get the best deal for Canada. We will build an independent future for our country, stronger than ever,” Carney said, promising “retaliatory trade actions” designed for “maximum impact in the US and minimum impacts in Canada.”
