Elbows up or elbows down? PM Carney makes pitch to U.S. business leaders

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]A stronger Canada is a better ally. And we know we know that while Canada and the United States have had our differences over the centuries, we have always worked and eventually work through them because we share values and our common interests run deep. Let's be absolutely clear. Canada strong will help make America great again.

[00:00:29]Prime Minister Mark Carney there on what has been described to me as the kickoff to a more pronounced charm offensive.

[00:00:35]Speaking to US business leaders, pitching Canada strong as key, as you heard there, to making America great again, otherwise known as MAGA. The prime minister's quick trip to the US coincides with the first of three rounds of scheduled US Mexico trade talks. The US trade representative, meanwhile, has made no mention of formal trade talks with Canada. And here's reaction to what we heard from the prime minister today from Pierre Pyab, the leader of the opposition.

[00:00:59]>> The Liberal Prime Minister was off to New York to expand his favorite export speeches. On the one hand, he says that we are in the middle of a rupture with the United States, while on the other, he says he wants to make America, in his words, great again. His elbows were again flapping up and down in the in the rhetorical chicken dance as he cannot seem to decide if integration with the US is a strength or a weakness.

[00:01:29]>> So, what should we make of the prime minister's pledge to help make America great again? Let's bring in our front bench for that discussion. With us this evening, former BC Premier Christy Clark. She's a senior adviser with Bennett Jones and host of the Christy Clark show. Markino is former chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Kernney and a former Liberal Cabinet Minister. He's now senior council and strategic adviser for Castles. CTV political analyst and former conservative industry minister James Moore is with us. He's now a policy adviser at Edelman and former federal conservative cabinet minister and MP Monty Soulberg is rounding us out tonight. He's the CEO of New West Public Affairs. Hi everybody. Happy Thursday.

[00:02:03]Mark, there's a couple of things to talk about here. The substance of the speech and then the political debate over kind of elbows up, elbows down, which I think became a bit more interesting today with that speech. Uh Marco, I'll start with you and the speech itself. That line is very deliberate. lot lots of the rest of the speech we'd heard before, but that line feels very deliberate. Why now? And why the line?

[00:02:24]>> Because Carney's uh in full pitch mode, and we have to look at the audience there. It's US investors. So, I think this is really plays to his wheelhouse.

[00:02:34]Um he's got a number of very strong arguments to that specific audience on substance. He pitched that Canadian energy is more cost effective and driven by US demand. He pitched uh a joint auto market uh that is more efficient and integrated and driven by Canadian consumer demand. And he pitched Cana uh Canadian critical minerals which are globally scarce but will power artificial intelligence which is the future. So this is a very sophisticated crowd. Uh they will get the advantages and the merits and the puts and takes of of that trade. But what is the deeper strategic goal? It was to enlist those US investors to take up the Canadian business case to the one New York businessman who wasn't in the room and that is the person who runs the White House, President Trump. So, a lot of substantive uh ground covered. Um I think he will have wanted uh the room to clock uh the tone as you point out uh which was not a retreat uh from Davos to be sure. uh you know the fact that there is a global rupture does not mean the end of the Canada US relationship. Uh it means we have to redefine it in the light of a more self-reliant Canada. Um I think he was also signaling some real intent to get back to the table given that the July 1st uh timeline of the accusment review is upon us. So I think the deeper uh strategic goal was to enlist that room to activate uh to go to the US uh administration and to make the case on the merits so that we can uh take it uh to the next uh era and the next chapter of what is an extremely important um bilateral trade relationship.

[00:04:14]>> I I get all of that. I do think it's interesting, James, that uh you know Melanie Jolie today is saying ministers will be deployed. There will be, and last week someone was telling me there's going to be like kind of a a charm offensive to try and uh counter the idea that we're being quote unquote uncooperative. That line today seemed to fit into that narrative. Pete Huxra, the US ambassador, posted on social media like, you know, uh I think a lot of Americans can get behind that kind of positive message, like the first positive tweet from him in a long time.

[00:04:43]Do you see it as uh fitting with the Davos message or a break from it?

[00:04:49]I I think fitting with the Davos message was that obviously there's been a rupture and things have changed dramatically as a consequence of Donald Trump and he was speaking at the time don't forget about Davos. It wasn't necessarily about Kuzma was also about the threats against Greenland and and the threats about sort of abdication of article 5 of NATO of attack against one is attack against all the slide back on on solidarity with Ukraine. So, so the Davos speech was in, I think, a broader geopolitical context. But I I think the full sweet engagement of important ministers in key markets of the United States to advocate for the position that Canada and the United States are key economic allies is is frankly the a key job of the prime minister of Canada which is why whenever there's an appointment or a naming of the ambassador of uh Canada in Washington DC is such an important role because you know it it's it's fundamental to Canada's economic well-being that we maintain a strong healthy relationship with the United States and that's not just a one-on-one relationship between the prime minister and the president or key ministers and key senators and members of Congress. Uh but it's also business leaders, it's also NOS's and it's also thought leaders going down there and making the clear point that if the United States wants to be strong, then Canada should be strong. for Canada to be strong. The United States should be strong and we will get through the tensions and the dynamics of sort of contemporary politics because the United States benefits when they get reliable energy, reliable oil and gas, reliable hydroele electricity, when they get affordable and reliable aluminum from Canada. And by the way, the United States wants to build all these automobiles. Canada is the fifth largest auto consuming country in the world. So we're going to buy those F-150s and those Teslas and those other cars. So, you know, the North American platform is the most effective and efficient and successful economic alliance in the history of the world. And I don't think we can ever get tired of saying that.

[00:06:31]>> Will the audience uh the intended audience buy it, Christie, and deliver the message to Trump, do you think?

[00:06:39]>> I think that's exactly why he's there.

[00:06:41]Remember, the Americans are meeting with the Mexicans on Koosma right now. and Carney is, I think, trying to find a a a smart way to get his message out there while that's happening. At the same time, remember the people he was speaking to in New York, these are his people. They know him. They've worked with him. They trust him. They like him.

[00:07:02]And you know, he couldn't be in a more comfortable environment. And these people are not just people who know Carney, they're people who know Trump.

[00:07:12]They are the most influential people in Trump's world, too. So it seems like a perfect alignment for Carney to be talking to these guys at this moment with this president. And you know using the make America great again line wasn't a terrible idea. I mean we need America to be great in Canada. They need a strong Canada. We need a strong United States. We don't want America to fail any more than they want Canad that people in that room don't want Canada to fail. So, I thought it was a message well delivered at a perfect moment and I think it uh he's delivering it to a crowd that is going to potentially be the most helpful group he could talk to.

[00:07:53]>> Does the opposition Monty have a point Pierre Polyv there seizing on like you know do we want more integration? Is it a weakness? Is it a strength? I I think there I understand the point everybody is making about the merits of the argument but there are different points over the last year where it feels like different arguments have been made.

[00:08:10]Well, there's no question that the prime minister has done a complete 180 from where we were on election night and elbows up and all of that kind of thing.

[00:08:20]Uh but I also think uh the direction he's going now is a much better one uh than the one he laid out initially. Uh and uh really he's grounded now. It seems like he's grounded in reality. I mean America is our number one trading partner. I was heartened to hear the prime minister talk about oil and gas very specifically which is uh something that is new in a liberal government in the last 10 years. So quite happy to see that. Uh I do think that this is aimed at an audience that will really frankly outlive the presidency of the uh of Donald Trump. Uh any projects that are talked about in the next little while will extend into the years ahead. So it was a good message to go to a business crowd. Absolutely. Uh but it can't end there. They also need to execute on it.

[00:09:11]And this is my uh concern is that it's fine to talk about fasttracking uh oil and gas and you know the German deal and and some of the other things that the prime minister talked about. But he has activists in his own caucus who are opposed to the direction he's going. I'm just concerned that he's going to get uh sidetracked dealing with some of that and uh it will cost Canada opportunities.