00:00Breaking news this morning. Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Washington next week to try to find some way past the trade and tariff impasse with U.S. President Donald Trump.
00:09The Prime Minister's office is issuing a statement this morning saying Prime Minister Carney will be meeting with the President at the White House on Tuesday.
00:16The visit Carney's second as Prime Minister comes as the two countries are locked in a protracted trade war and are negotiating on trade and security issues.
00:25Carney and Trump will hold working meetings that day. On the last visit in May, you'd recall, the Prime Minister sought to counter Trump's 50 first state comments warning the President they infuriated Canadians.
00:38But earlier this week, Trump returned to that rhetoric.
00:41We call the Golden Dome missile defense shield. It'll be the most sophisticated in the world.
00:46You watched it do well until they had some problems at the end with a little bit of a lack of ammunition, defensive ammunition.
00:57But they've got that taken care of. But I tell you, it's what we're doing is so good and we deserve it.
01:04You know, we help other countries with it. We don't have it ourselves.
01:08And Canada called me a couple of weeks ago.
01:11So they want to be part of it. To which I said, well, why don't you just join our country and become 51, become the 51st state.
01:19Let's now bring in Peter McKay, former conservative foreign affairs minister, in this conversation.
01:24Sir, good morning and thank you for your time.
01:26Good morning, actually. Good to be with you.
01:28Let's make a start with your reaction to this news that's just come in.
01:31Prime Minister Carney visiting Donald Trump for the second time in a few months.
01:34Well, I think it's always positive to engage difficult, of course, in the best of circumstances.
01:42And as we've seen previously going to the White House, no matter who you are, there's very much a sense of volatility.
01:50And what mood will the prime minister and the president be in on on that particular day?
01:55Prime Minister Carney has a big agenda item, and that is to get back to somehow normalizing relations around trade and talking about how we ensure the continuation of the USMCA.
02:08But as as that clip just demonstrates, as long as this continued reference to the 51st state remains foremost in the president's mind, this is not an atmosphere that is going to make these type of negotiations easy.
02:25And it's something that absolutely enrages Canadians and isn't going to happen, by the way, actually.
02:32True that, sir.
02:32The point being that the president, of course, raising this issue just a few days ago, and now the prime minister going ahead and meeting with him.
02:41Do you believe this is really going to be a part of the conversation when there is so much more at stake?
02:46We've been discussing this for weeks, sir, whether it's steel, whether it's aluminum, our auto sector.
02:50The president has now spoken of lumber, pharmaceuticals, etc.
02:54You think 51st state thing is going to be something they will bring up?
03:00I doubt it.
03:01This seems to be a leveraging tool that the president continually brings up in public.
03:08I doubt very much, although I'm not in the room, whether this is something that is actually discussed in any kind of a serious meeting.
03:15As you've recognized, Akshay, the list keeps getting longer.
03:20The punishment keeps getting worse in terms of the Canadian economy and various sectors that are being hit.
03:26But the president in that clip that you showed is also talking about missile defense, talking about the defense of North America.
03:34Let's be clear.
03:35Very important.
03:37Something we are already doing in lockstep, cheek and jowl, with the United States through NORAD.
03:42This is an important issue.
03:44I'm hopeful and I suspect strongly that this will be part of the discussion.
03:49But the president sees himself as a master negotiator.
03:53There's this confluence of issues that he brings together, whether it's national defense, whether it's these numerous sectors of the economy.
04:01And it's the politics of this.
04:03I think it's obvious to many Americans now that these tariffs are also hitting their economy very hard.
04:11A 15 percent drop in trade, very significant drop in terms of the number of Canadians who are going cross-border.
04:19So there is a price to pay for prolonging this state of indecision, this state of suspended animation between Canada and the U.S. on trade and our very intertwined economies.
04:33So you did mention politics.
04:35So let's talk about the politics back at home.
04:37We know conservative leader Pierre Polyev has been putting a lot of pressure on the prime minister to deliver some sort of a deal.
04:43Initial dates were in July.
04:44We had a few months past that, sir.
04:46But with this meeting and the ongoing sort of conversation or negotiations that we've been having with the United States,
04:53maybe, who knows, maybe there is a deal that the prime minister comes back with.
04:57But the chances of something like that, and what is it do you think that the opposition will be okay with
05:02when the prime minister returns and says, this is what we have on the cards?
05:06Well, you're obviously looking at how does the prime minister thread multiple needles in a haystorm.
05:13And I think, you know, in fairness, you know, His Majesty's loyal opposition is there to press and to probe
05:19and to push the prime minister to get results.
05:23Now, the politics of this, as we know well, goes back even before the election.
05:29And the prime minister was elected very much on the promise of being able to handle Trump,
05:35whatever that means and whatever possibility there is to do that.
05:39In addition to being sort of portrayed as the adult in the room,
05:44the one who has this impressive resume, which is undeniable.
05:47And yet this has not really panned out to date.
05:52And in particular, of course, I have to point out that we haven't seen a budget yet.
05:57And that budget is going to be revealing on many, many levels.
06:00It will be a harbinger of things to come in terms of the Canadian economy,
06:04the size of the deficit, the debt to GDP ratio.
06:07All of these things are critically important to Canadians
06:09with the backdrop of a continuing and pernicious affordability crisis in the country.
06:15And so you're going to see the opposition continue, I think,
06:18to be quite aggressive on those points
06:20because they were election sales points
06:23that the prime minister put in the front window during his campaign.
06:27Indeed. Okay, we'll leave it at that for this morning.
06:29Appreciated insights always.
06:30Peter McKay, former Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister.
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