Back from Washington, Carney suffers the wrath of the opposition
(Ottawa) Barely hours after returning from his trip to Washington, Prime Minister Mark Carney received group shots from opposition parties who accuse him of having returned to the country “empty-handed” and of having “betrayed Canadians”.
Mark Carney promised that his government “is going to have an agreement” with the Americans on steel, aluminum and energy, and that he will refuse “to sign an agreement that is not in the interest of Canadians” when he returns to the commons after three days in the American capital.
This was obviously not enough for the opposition parties. Quite the contrary. The Liberal leader has never experienced such a question period since his election.
“A weak prime minister!” », Thundered the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, who did not spare the attacks.
“We will be nice to the Prime Minister since he is recovering from an operation: he had his elbow amputated! “, taunted Mr. Poilievre, referring to the Liberal election slogan “elbows up”.
Mr. Poilievre repeatedly accused the Prime Minister of sending billions of dollars of investments to the United States in the midst of a trade war, in addition to promising an additional 1,000 billion within five years if an agreement is reached with the White House, then of having lost thousands of jobs in the country in recent months.
“We now know why President Trump wanted this prime minister to be in power so badly: a weak leader, whose tax and anti-development policies are driving billions of dollars and jobs out of the United States,” he railed.
Mr. Carney wanted to offer a “little economic lesson” to Mr. Poilievre by telling him that the Canadian and American economies were “integrated”. It didn’t happen.
Through the rumblings from the opposition benches and the loud applause from his caucus, the Prime Minister sometimes struggled to be heard in the cacophonous theater that was the House of Commons.
“It’s going to be long today,” even suggested the President of the House, Francis Scarpaleggia.
To listen to the Conservative leader, one would have thought that Mark Carney had sold Canada to the United States during his trip south of the border.
This was all the more true when he mentioned the remarks made privately to a Toronto group by the American Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, who reportedly said that the place of the automobile industry in Canada will undoubtedly no longer be the same as of next year.
Mr. Poilievre once again attacked the head of government, accusing him of having “betrayed auto workers at a time when they need him most.”
If he wanted to shake the Prime Minister off his hinges, he succeeded by suggesting that the latter was “weak” for having backed down on counter-tariffs, on the tax on digital services and on defense to please the Americans.
“It is a sad day in this House when the Leader of the Opposition suggests that defending this country, spending to defend our borders, spending to defend our participation in NATO, is a step backwards on defense,” he said in a tone that Canadians did not know before.
” Shame ! Shame ! “, he thundered, addressing Mr. Poilievre.
The Prime Minister and his delegation returned without a formal agreement from the American capital where they met over the last two days with American President Donald Trump, certain members of his cabinet, influential senators and the representative of an important business group.
Upon arriving in Washington, the Canadian delegation moderated expectations and did not promise an agreement. Since then, Canadian representatives have affirmed that the conversations now have “momentum” and that an agreement is possible.
Moreover, the Minister of Canada-United States Trade, Dominic LeBlanc, is still in Washington where he will spend “the next few days” to continue negotiations, particularly in the steel, aluminum and energy sectors.
Steel and aluminum are being hit with imposing 50% tariffs, while Canada appears open to solidifying the relationship with its southern neighbor when it comes to energy. On Tuesday, it appeared that the Keystone XL pipeline project, which in the last decade aimed to send 300 million barrels of crude oil from Alberta to the southern United States, was discussed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Carney.
The Bloc Québécois also noted that the Prime Minister returned from Washington “empty-handed” and that “worse!” » new rates on heavy trucks were imposed at the start of the week, in addition to the rate increase on lumber.
“The great negotiator comes back empty-handed again! “, said chef Yves-François Blanchet.
No matter what Mark Carney said, nothing seemed to convince anyone in Parliament not on the government benches.
Mr. Carney claimed that in July, President Donald Trump had “himself signed the best trade agreement between the United States and Canada in the world”, since he then removed from his tariff salvo products subject to the Canada-United States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement.
This means that 85% of Canadian goods are duty-free when crossing the US border.
He argued that discussions with the Americans were going well, that a better agreement would be reached for Canada, even if the relationship between the two countries “will never be the same again.” Nothing to do.
