Mark Carney said that he expects US President Donald Trump to try to extract Canada's “major concessions” in negotiations and take seriously the president's declared desire to transform the country into an American state.
“Take what the president literally says. I literally take it. I have always done it,” Canadian Prime Minister told journalists on the last weekend before the national elections.
“From the start, I took it seriously. And because of this, it animates our actions, which leads to the strength of our response to their prices. ” Canada has retaliated against American prices with its own import taxes on tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing products.
Trump said in ainterviewPublished by Time this week that he “really does not hang out” when he talks about transforming Canada into a 51st American condition. He repeated, without evidence, his statement that the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year to “take care of Canada”. A large majority of Canadians are opposed to the idea of joining the United States.
Canada’s economy is, however, vulnerable to Trump's trade protectionism: about three-quarters of its exports go to the United States, including almost all of its oil and gas exports.
Carney, 60, campaigned in the province of the Battlefield of Ontario the last weekend of the campaign. The Canadians vote on Monday, and most of the opinion investigations show the Liberal Party of Carney with a close advance on the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Hairyvre.
THELast surveyTo light marketing has the liberals of around 43% and the conservatives of 39%, Carney having about a 10 -point advantage on the question of which would make the best Prime Minister. Leger noted that the Liberals were well in advance in Quebec but have a smaller advance in Ontario; The two provinces control the majority of the seats in the country's House of Commons. The conservatives are the dominant political party in a large part of Western Canada.
Carney has based its campaign on the theme that Canada has no choice but to forge stronger alliances with the rest of the world while renegotiating its relationship with the United States.
“America wants our lands, our resources, our water, our country. President Trump is trying to break so that America can own us,” he told supporters on Saturday, repeating a line he said frequently.
Trump has filed a number of complaints concerning trade – saying that Canada makes too difficult for the United States to do business in sectors, including bank and dairy products. The president also does not like that Canadian factories export more than a million cars and trucks a year in the United States.
Asked later by a journalist if he thought Trump would try to use the military force against Canada to achieve his goals, Carney said no.
Carney and Trump spoke by phone but have not met in person since the former central banker succeeded Justin Trudeau last month.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
