Prime Minister Mark Carney held a phone call with premiers Wednesday afternoon to brief them following his apparently successful first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The virtual briefing with provincial and territorial leaders also came after Alberta’s premier publicly raised the spectre of the province separating from Canada amid concerns about western alienation.
Carney and Trump spent about two hours together Tuesday at the White House, including about half an hour in front of the cameras in the Oval Office.
It was their first face-to-face discussion of U.S.-Canada relations and Trump’s ongoing trade war.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew sent a letter to Carney on Wednesday sharing the province’s aim to partner on several nation-building projects.
They include creating a trade corridor through the Port of Churchill, establishing Indigenous “fair trade zones” and developing critical minerals infrastructure, with Kinew writing that “Manitoba is the Costco of critical minerals.”
Kinew said Manitoba “stands ready to collaborate” with the prime minister as well as all provinces and territories to “build a stronger Canada on projects of national interest.”
“We will always be the true, north, strong and free,” Kinew said.
Carney was sworn in as prime minister March 14 and soon after plunged Canada into a general election, winning a minority mandate for the Liberals on April 28.
Carney and Trump appeared to emerge from the White House meeting pleased with how it had gone. Trump indicated he liked Carney and that there had been no tension during their talks.
Carney said while the leaders are now “fully engaged,” there’s “a lot more work to do.”
International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the meeting with Trump, was expected to join the call with premiers Wednesday.
Carney said he and Trump agreed to talk further in the coming weeks and will meet in person again in June, when Carney hosts the G7 leaders at a summit in Alberta.
“Really, today marked the end of the beginning of a process of the United States and Canada redefining that relationship of working together,” Carney said.
“The question is how we will co-operate in the future. How we can build an economic and security relationship built on mutual respect, built on common interests that delivers transformational benefits to our economies.”
Carney said he and Trump met as the leaders of “sovereign nations” and he told the president more than once that Canadians will never be interested in becoming Americans.
He said Canada must focus on what it can control.
“We are going to reinforce our strength at home,” Carney said, adding that his government will reinforce security and boost the economy.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government recently introduced legislation that would lower the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum on separation.
When asked about the legislation during a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, Carney said Canada is stronger when the provinces work together.
“As an Albertan, I firmly believe that,” he said. “You can always ask a question, but I know what I would respond clearly.”
On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized talk of Alberta separating and said Canada must be united in its fight against the United States.
“This is a time to unite the country, not people saying, ‘Oh, I’m leaving the country,'” Ford said.
Fen Hampson, a Carleton University professor and co-chair of a group of experts on Canada-U.S. relations, said Carney has to manage a “two-track set” of negotiations.
First, he faces coming negotiations on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement. CUSMA is scheduled to be reviewed in 2026 but Trump has indicated he wants it reopened sooner.
Then there is the “more immediate” negotiating challenge of persuading Washington to lift recently imposed tariffs against Canada, Hampson said.
“That’s the first order of the day because I think he recognizes, our government recognizes, that you can’t be renegotiating (a trade deal) when essentially the Americans have broken the back of the agreement with these very punitive tariffs,” he said.
Carney said Tuesday that with respect to re-establishing a constructive relationship to negotiate a new economic and security partnership, he looks “forward, not back” and thinks he and Trump established a “good basis” to proceed.
While Trump said Tuesday there was nothing Carney could say to get him to lift the tariffs immediately, Hampson said the president is “quite capable” of changing his mind.
“We’ve seen that before in many cases,” he said. “We’ve even seen it with tariffs. He’s imposed tariffs and then lowered them or delayed them.”
Working in Canada’s favour, Hampson said, is the fact the American economy is “about to tank” as a result of tariffs imposed on Canada and other countries, including China. The challenge will be to get Trump to understand the importance of Canada’s market, he added.
Carney is expected to name a new cabinet next week, ahead of the return of Parliament at the end of the month.
Hampson said he suspects the prime minister will be making some changes to his core team and that he’s going to have to pick people who are “tough and good negotiators.”
“As he looks to potential cabinet appointments, he really needs to look at them not just in terms of their management and ministerial skills, but in terms of their negotiating skills because they’re going to have to do some of the negotiating.”
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