Dan Knight- Carney in Washington: A Test of Leadership, Failed
At the center of the meeting? Tariffs. Brutal, unapologetic tariffs. Twenty-five percent on cars, steel, and aluminum. Ten percent on oil. These weren’t symbolic gestures. These were real hits—economic body blows designed to protect American industry and workers. And Carney? He came begging for relief.
He leaned hard on the talking points: Canada is America’s largest customer, the two economies are integrated, half of Canadian-built cars are American in content. Trump didn’t flinch. When asked if he’d lift the tariffs, his response was classic Trump: “No… Just the way it is.” That’s it. No spin. No apology.
“What became painfully obvious is something Canadians don’t want to admit: our economy isn’t “intertwined” with America’s—it’s dependent on it. Seventy-five percent of our exports go south. Trump holds all the leverage. He knows it. You know it. Carney knows it too, which is why he did nothing but nod and smile while Trump repeatedly lowballed our economic significance—claiming Canada only does “4%” of U.S. business, a number not just wrong but insulting. And still, Carney said nothing.”
Francisco …..”our economy isn’t “intertwined” with America’s—it’s dependent on it.”
It sure is , of which Trump and his team are fully aware !. I believe that Trump wanted Carney to win , perhaps because he has some “dirt” on Carney , or because Carney is a crazed “net-zero” and Trump definitely is NOT. Trump can use Carney’s “green agenda” by forcing Carney into a position which would enrage Carney’s “greenies” on “IssueA” (which Trump doesn’t care) that allows Trump to get Carney to cave on a separate IssueB … like the auto pact … while seemingly making it appear Carney prevailed.
On a separate issue , Carney is a globalist WEF type and has always been a civil servant , while Trump is not and is not particularly fond of the bureaucracy or WEF … witness DOGE! The only card Carney hold in negotiating with Trump is oil … which Carney officially detests … except when he is making $$$ prior to being elected.
The end result is Canada under Carney will lose big time in the coming negotiations with the US.
Whether Carney ran with any of the Epstein crowd is unclear but if he did … Trump , who has access to that data will certainly use it.
BTW : If anyone wonders why the Epstein files have not been released , Machiavelli would be laughing . They will never be erased or released until all the parties involved who can be blackmailed into submission are dead.
Let’s hope for Canada’s sake Carney is not on the Epstein list.
If Carney is on the list, he would realize that Trump knows. So if he is, WTF did he run for the leadership and then for PM?
Unless maybe Trump told him to.
Otherwise he’s absolutely stupid and short-sighted. Well, he is a Liberal after all.
Sexton Beetle … or “made him an offer he couldn’t refuse”.
I think all the #Libranos are on the list. Did anyone meet with Epstein or Maxwell “only once” at a fundraiser in England a decade ago?
Sure it’s a wide brush. It isn’t like Epstein or Maxwell did this for a wild few months one summer.
It was their “family business”
I expect that Kash Patel has had a sit down conversation with The President to give him the heads up and details of who was on the list, enough info to use as leverage when they come knocking.
As an American who detests Communists/Democrats I also despise RINO’s and my guess is there may be a few RINO’s who played around with underage girls on Pedo Island. The FBI raided Pedo Island, took everything and now have the “evidence.” The FBI is totally Deep State and not to be trusted. I think most of readers here on SDA are pretty cynical when it comes to our own political classes both in America and Canada.
I don’t trust Pam Bondi or Susie Wiles for one second. They can be gotten to and probably have been. So will we see anything out the Epstein files? I doubt it too.
“Hey, Donald Trump, surprise everyone with releasing ALL the Jeffrey Epstein dirt How about it?”
Autopact died with the adoption of NAFTA
So much for sticking it to the evil orange man.
Carney got spanked reeeeal good!
I am sure all of us have, at least at one point in our life, accepted a job offer, or volunteered to help a buddy build a deck, or said you would go to your wife’s cousin’s lesbian wedding and, not very long into it, have asked the question; “What the hell have I got myself into?” I wonder if the Greatest Economist Ever (TM) is starting to think that.
I have no doubt that he felt he could swoop in, as he has always claims to have done, and save the day. Like a very diminutive Superman.
The very best that can be claimed to have occurred at yesterday’s meeting was that Carney didn’t get the Zelensky.
Mr. Carney is facing enormous challenges:
1> One of the worst growth records in the OECD
2> The threat of tariffs
3> Growing budget deficits
4> Perhaps the final realization in the West that Canada is not for them but is only to exploit them
5> Nascent Quebec separation re-emerging
etc. etc.
What will Mr. Carney do? Will he double down on his ludicrous Net Zero philosophy? Will he go “elbows up” and do something like restricting oil exports to the US? (refer back to # 4) Will he tax everything, and I mean EVERYTHING more?
Or, will he actually try to implement proven pro-growth strategies. Cut taxes. Build pipelines. Cut bureaucracies.
I know where I’m placing my bets.
I can hardly wait for him to do a Dalton McGuinty and proclaim “I didn’t know it was this bad” like McGuinty did when he cranked taxes. Even after the liarberals have truly mucked it up for the last 10 years
Unlike Dolton (no, not a typo), he can’t claim that he “didn’t know it was this bad,” because he was advising the turd from the inside for the past 5 years.
Chris in the Bridge …
Trump wants (needs) Canada’s Oil Sands heavy oil. The US imports it from Canada and also from Russia (Mazut M100). With the current US-Russia situation , access to Mazut M100 may be in jeopardy as Trump and his crowd likely don’t even know how much they rely on it. The US has plenty of light crude from which gasoline is refined , but you can’t refine diesel from light crude , so heavy crude / Mazut M100 is blended with light crude to be refined into diesel.
Dead on correct. The gulf and Midwest refineries are configured for heavy crude. The only other real source is Venezuela. Will Carney try to leverage this? I’m liking the odds on that sovereignty vote!
They are currently having quiet discussions with Venezuela, who also have the heavy crude they need.
Yes, the view of Canada is bad when the US will import more Venezuelan crude.
Elbows Up suckers!
Many multi-national oil and gas companies lump their Canadian reserves into their U.S. reserves and I don’t think President Trump knows this. While the U.S. was a net exporter of light crude during his first term, it was always a net importer of heavies from Canada to run its Gulf coast refineries (as Brian and Chris on the Bridge mentioned above).
Brian –
Thanks for that post, it connected dots for me, mainly: why do we ship oil to the US if they have so much of their own?
Great post.
mhb23re
Hmmm, maybe, but then again…maybe not. We’ll see.
What will Canada do if it’s discovered that the U.S. is not so dependent upon Canadian heavy sour?
Really doesn’t matter how many years he was involved, he will still use it as an excuse and the same liarberal morons that elected will nod along. If they were stupid enough to re-elect the exact same liarberal government, albeit with a new leader with a less punchable face, they will be stupid enough to buy that too
I love the smell of napalm in the morning!
The truth. Take note all orange man bad A-holes.
Trump is president of the U.S. and is proud of being America first.
CC (carnival carney) is anything but Canada first.
I’d rather have Trump than CC
GO WEXIT
US also imports heavy oil from Mexico, Ecuador , Columbia, Brazil Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
The American government is going to punish Canadians by taxing Americans for things they want to buy, and then the Canadian government is going to retaliate against America, by taxing Canadians on things they want to buy. Both countries face higher taxes from their own government and both are cheering on their governments to tax them harder. People are idiots.
Dusty shackleDORK
Just how stupid are you????
Trump is going to CUT taxes!
Replace taxes with tariff revenue.
Your understanding of economics relies heavily on tax policy.
” Ten percent on oil.”
WooHoo!
Alberta was already selling our oil to the U.S. for 25% below world market prices.
So we jack our oil up to world market level and sell it at Trump’s 10% tariff.
That’s a gain of 15% in price for Alberta.
You’re really slow. Canada has one place to ship the oil. When you have only one customer, who truly sets the price? Jack it up all you want. The US: No thanks. Canada: Well then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll…….ok how much again?
“Alberta was already selling our oil to the U.S. for 25% below world market prices.”
Wasn’t that because our oil is expensive to extract from the oil sands, and it isn’t viable to do so if the world price is too low?
That as well, but mostly we have one customer. As said above, when you have one customer, and no alternative, who really sets the price?
“That as well, but mostly we have one customer. As said above, when you have one customer, and no alternative, who really sets the price?”
I love how the Liberals tried so hard to sell us on the idea that we could find “new markets” for our goods, resources and energy. Too bad all those new customers are on the other side of oceans.
Trump didn’t fly to Ottawa.
L- +
Thomas
Exactly, which was my thinking all along.
Honestly – would Polievre have been any better?
If it were me? I would have called Trump on his bullshit statistics to his face. And then asked politely for a reach-around while he was back there.
At this stage it’s not about Trump. He is fixing America’s economy which has become too highly dependent on imports. Canada needs to fix its economy by reaching out to other countries. Remember when Germany came begging for LNG? Japan and China are also interested although China is an unreliable partner (they do exactly the same thing Trump is doing – take advantage of a dependent economy). Canada has devolved to an Amazon trading hub of the USA.
As an American who detests Communists/Democrats I also despise RINO’s and my guess is there may be a few RINO’s who played around with underage girls on Pedo Island. The FBI raided Pedo Island, took everything and now have the “evidence.” The FBI is totally Deep State and not to be trusted. I think most of readers here on SDA are pretty cynical when it comes to our own political classes both in America and Canada.
I don’t trust Pam Bondi or Susie Wiles for one second. They can be gotten to and probably have been. So will we see anything out the Epstein files? I doubt it too.
“Hey, Donald Trump, surprise everyone with releasing ALL the Jeffrey Epstein dirt How about it?”
Steve
Trade deficits are basically an out flow of capital.
Yeah, he would have done better. The key is to simply align with Trump policies including cutting the federal government…..big time.
That would have gotten your PM, whoever it was, the full Zelensky treatment. Probably not a good idea for any Canadian PM to do that — you have a trade deal with my country up for renegotiation. You’ve already painted yourselves into a corner with your antics.
Why would anyone expect anything different? Carney couldn’t effectively stand up to the press when he was running for PM, and failed to answer anything off the cuff, instead retreating to talking points.
The other portion of it, is that Canada selected a manager to run the country, not a leader. The press never bothered to ask simple questions like “What did you do differently during the 2008 financial crisis, that every other central banker wasn’t doing to benefit Canadians?” I’d bet he wouldn’t be able to answer that question even after several hours of thought on it.
heeeeyyyy Canaduh voterrrrrrrrs, see how its playing out? see how the Trumpster TRICKED you into picking the lieberal wuss? nobody’s perfect but look whut you did. went back for a 3rd helping of turdeauism.
but you will in fact never ‘get it’ because they play you all the time have you pegged and then another election with all them puppet strings hanging down.
If I was running the country I would be working hard on a plan B (to diversify my economy beyond the US) regardless of what was happening with my Trump negotiations. Unlikely this is happening.
We had a massive opportunity in LNG to Europe. Trudeau and the Libranos said no. Now the US is fulfilling that need. That chance is not coming back, so our next best bet is Asia. The US has natural gas in abundance, they will drill, produce, pipe and liquefy for Asia before our bureaucrats have struck the committee to determine who the stakeholders are for the committee to study the issue.
So we should start sending letters?
You can “diversify” all you want but the cold hard reality is that the biggest customer lives in your neighborhood. Its like a shopping center saying we are not going to sell to the local community, we only want to sell to someone across town (who have direct access to their own little shopping centers).. Not going to happen.
And we have no leverage.
The problem is the biggest customer is acting like our only customer. We used to have leverage which is built one agreement at a time. I would start with Germany or Japan. China is too opportunistic. Canada has oil, gas, coal, canola, wheat, beef, nickel, gold, soy beans, uranium. We are a trading nation.
Everyone focused on the US, and ignored that China has tariffs on Canadian pork, canola and soy beans.
JD … it is not so much the China tariffs , but China is shifting agriculture import sources from US and Canada , to Brazil (soybeans) and Russia (wheat ) because of the current US trade policies , and the view Canada as essentially a vassal of the US regarding trade.
“US farmers beg Trump to stop the trade war and save American farming. But it’s already too late.”
Inside China Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nADbVedF7xw
Those are all low profit, needing high volume, readily supplied by many other hungrier nations.
Distance means something.
Steve, for the oil in Alberta, they are our only customer, courtesy of the Turd and Guilbault, and a bunch of bureaucrats.
“The problem is the biggest customer is acting like our only customer.”
I think the real problem is that are *by far* our biggest customer ( 78% or so).
You can replace that over time…we just don’t have that time. The US could crush us economically almost overnight if they chose to.
As I recall for 50 years I have been hearing we are going to expand our markets. Further to that I heard Steven Harper speak and he was very proud of the large number of trade deals he had negotiated – with something more than 40 countries if I recall correctly. Truth is, we don’t manufacture much of what the world wants and the resources we have in abundance, the government doesn’t want developed. But I am sure it will be different this time.
“As I recall for 50 years I have been hearing we are going to expand our markets. ”
I think Trudeau Sr. started it, with his pathological hatred of America driving him to force Canada to adopt the metric system instead of sticking with the one used by our largest trading partner. He had illusions about aligning Canada more closely with Europe than the USA.
The mainstream media is heaping praise on Carney, claiming he did great against Trump.
I almost gagged.
I saw that. Big arse Vassy Kapelos gushed harder than the SS Rosie Barton at an all you can eat buffet. Vomit inducing. That cover they’re running will get pretty thin as the recession deepens.
This isn’t about confrontation. It’s about LOVE, actually.
https://youtu.be/qMJcZpvyNok?si=_cA8yXtwjWNPsIhm&t=38
Yeah … I have no doubt this is EXACTLY how the Canadian people envision their new PM. Standing up to bullies. Standing up to men who “grab women by their splits”.
Gawwwd …
Hey Kenji, can you email the House Judiciary committee and ask them to release Carney’s testimony from last year?
Trump insulted one of his ministers and a woman who apparently sees him as her godfather and Skid Mark did not say a word in her defense. If he can’t defend Freeland, how can he defend Canada. Pathetic.
Trump is squeezing Carney and so is Danielle Smith.
Must suck to be Carney with his “Climate Karen wife” and screwed up Trans child.
And his butt buddy Butts.
Trump without a doubt is the Master. He has played everyone for the fools they are, including a majority of Canadian voters. We are about to see Act IV of the Monroe Doctrine played out. Canada as a vassal state first under Great Britain and later under the United States of America has always had to play second fiddle in the hill-billy orchestra. Canadians have always had the protection of another country in both defence and trade. Things are changing in world politics and the Western leaders are either too ignorant to notice or they are included in the graft. Trump, as many here recognize, has changed the equation and the balance of world politics as it used to be conducted. Western politicians and bureaucrats are now aware that everything has changed. Canada is a little late to the stage. Should Carney re-institute the carbon tax or any new tax for that matter, Smith has drawn the line and separation is on the ballot, which is exactly what Trump wants. In the meeting yesterday Carney said “Some things are not for sale.” Anything broken is generally not for sale, however when a country is broken, and Canada surely is broken, then it can be bought piece meal by the right and skillful buyer, Trump as a real estate tycoon knows this fundamental truth all too well. The next eighteen to twenty four months will be the prelude to Act IV, but make no mistake act four will be played for all to see. It will give a whole new meaning to Shakespeare’s trigicomedies.
US also imports heavy oil from Mexico, Ecuador , Columbia, Brazil Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
It is never wise to argue with donkeys. I know I would not have contradicted the president, or any senior executive, in front of their own team and in their own house. He showed up, kept his mouth shut, and was civil. So far so good.
Then you go back to your office and start working on ways to not need these people. If it is awkward it is. You do not negotiate with bullies. You get ready to fight on your own ground, at a time of own choosing, when you are ready.
The issue here is not that he didn’t pick a verbal fight – I would compliment him for wisdom in that situation.
The issue is that he isn’t going to fight at all.
Pffft.
“The issue is that he isn’t going to fight at all.”
Fight WITH WHAT, exactly? Still waiting for someone to explain their strategy.
“Then you go back to your office and start working on ways to not need these people. If it is awkward it is. You do not negotiate with bullies. You get ready to fight on your own ground, at a time of own choosing, when you are ready.”
Sounds like you have a plan (unlike any of the other “elbows up” suckers so far). Care to enlighten us?
We are the MAGA measuring stick.. Everything Trump is about, we are not.. He has no reason to be kind to a bunch of socialist jerk wads. Who want nothing but failure for him.. Not trolling.. America goes up while we go down.. In two years we will be ripping the hair out of our heads and the only thing Carney can do is borrow more money.. Devalue our credit rating and currency..
I hear we voted for that..
Other than the photo op, what exactly did Carney achieve?
I keep hearing it was a big success but light on what he succeeded in achieving.
Anyone?
Trump did not fly to Ottawa.
What did Carney achieve? The photo op, of course. What else could he achieve?
Oh, and he got a lot of “Testicle God Carney Crushes Orange Buffoon” coverage, though of course they were going to run that anyway.
As far as I know, he wasn’t mugged, so for a white man visiting DC, that’s a plus.