Four days after winning his first chosen office and leading the liberal party while it was holding power, Prime Minister Mark Carney explained a timetable and a broad legislative agenda for his new government.
During a press conference on Friday, Mr Carney’s big announcement was that he would go to Washington on Tuesday to open negotiations with President Trump about economic and trade issues. The 25 percent rates of the United States on vehicles, steel and aluminum made in Canada were of course large during the campaign.
[Read: Canada’s Prime Minister to Visit Trump Amid Trade Battle]
And on election day the US president had again repeated his vow to annex Canada as the 51st state.
[Read: Even on Canada’s Election Day, Trump Again Insists Country Should Join U.S.]
But Mr Carney said that when he was with Mr. the day after the elections. Trump spoke, the sovereignty of Canada had not emerged.
And Mr. Trump publicly praised the Prime Minister and called him “a very nice Lord.” But he also said that Mr. Carney and his most important opponent, Pierre Poilievre, both Trump “hated during the campaign.
“It was the one who hated Trump, I think the least that won,” said Mr Trump during his cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “I actually think that the conservative hated me much more than the so -called liberal.”
Mr Carney offered few details on Friday about his plan for dealing with Mr. Trump and said he did not want to negotiate in public. But he strongly confirmed that the sovereignty of Canada was not negotiable.
The elections was a mixed bag for both the liberals and the conservatives. Under Mr Carney, the liberals took their highest percentage of votes since 1984, but only 169 seats, just behind the 172 needed for a majority in the Lower House. (Tales and elections The validation process of Canada can still change that.)
Mr. Poilievre led the conservatives to their largest share of the vote and received seats, especially in Ontario, yet lost.
[Read: Mark Carney Wins New Term as Canada’s Prime Minister on Anti-Trump Platform]
[Read: Canada’s Liberals Narrowly Miss Out on Majority in Parliament]
[Read: Mark Carney’s Liberals Win Canada’s Election. Here Are 4 Takeaways.]
Nevertheless, the liberal victory was one of the most extraordinary comebacks in recent Canadian political history. Just a few months ago, before Mr Trump’s attacks in the Canadian sovereignty and the resignation of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, the liberals followed the conservatives with no fewer than 27 percentage points in the polls.
But it is unlikely that the Canadians Mr Carney, a former banker, are every play to be a starting politician while teaching at work, writes Matina Stevis-Gridneff, our head of the Office of Canada.
[Read: Mark Carney Swept Canada, but There Will Be No Honeymoon]
[Watch: The One Big Reason Canada’s Liberals Won]
And according to opinion, Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, writes a non -profit survey organization, which after the mood: “The world looks like a global laboratory rat, to observe how it will react and respond to what our neighbor then throws in the south afterwards.” Mrs. Kurl claims that “Canada’s imperative should be today to reformulate his place in the world outside of America.”
[Read in Opinion: The World Is Watching Canada]
For Mr Poilievre, the disappointment was worsened by losing his chair in Carleton, the suburbs and the rural driving in the Ottawa area that he had held for 21 years. Bruce Fanjoy, a first time politician, upset him to claim the seat for the liberals.
Mr. Fanjoy deserves the honor of placing two solid years campaign work in Carleton. But when I went out the morning after the mood, I discovered that many people, including conservatives, were still angry about the support of Mr. Poilievre for the trucker -konvooi that occupied and paralyzed a large part of the center of Ottawa in 2022.
On Friday, Damien Kurek, a conservative, said that he would resign from his chair in Alberta, Mr Poilievre’s home province, to make him run in an interim election and return to the parliament. Mr Carney said he would not postpone that mood, although he has the power to postpone it for six months.
The new parliament starts on 26 May. The next day will bring even more novelty: the speech of the throne – the route map of the government to its legislative plans – will not be read as usual by the governor -general, but by King Charles, in his capacity of the Monarch of Canada.
The speech has not been read by a prince since 1977, when Queen Elizabeth did the honor. Mr Carney casted the rare event as a statement of the sovereignty of Canada opposite the designs of Mr. Trump in the country.
“I know that many Canadians share my enthusiasm about this,” said Mr. Carney on Friday.
Then a French -speaking reporter asked him how having a member of “The British Crown” would read the Throne State in Quebec. Mr Carney struggled.
“That decision emphasizes the sovereignty of Canada as a nation,” he said in French. “It is a very clear message that is sent to other countries around the world.”
But when they are pressed to explain how the presence of someone who is most known worldwide as the British king would send such a message, his answer fell apart.
“It underlines, this is the ultimate head of state, that the – you know – one of the points I made underlines -” he said, before he called “the founding peoples of Canada”.
Ian Austen Reports about Canada for De Tijd located in Ottawa. He treats politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported over the country for two decades. He can be reached at austen@nytimes.com.
How are us?
We would like to have your opinion about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.
Do you like this e -mail?
Send it to your friends and let them know they can register here.
- Advertisement -
