Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has presented himself as the voice of the world’s middle powers against the bullying of President Donald Trump. In an era of great power rivalry, he told leaders in Davos, Switzerland, this year, defending national sovereignty would require “the ability to withstand pressure.”
Trump’s trade ‘war’ with Canada has Carney facing his biggest test yet
The Canadian prime minister has said his government will match U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
The Washington Post, August 24, 2026
7 min
Carney responded with a pledge to match the levies “dollar for dollar.”
“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” he told Canadians on Saturday. “We’re going to hit back.”
The leaders of other longtime U.S. partners, including Britain and the European Union, have scrambled in the face of Trump’s tariff threats to cut deals. Instead, Carney is now making a rare show of open defiance as the president deals with multiple challenges: rising consumer prices, a stalemated war against Iran and fast-approaching midterm elections in which Republicans are expected to take a drubbing.
“Carney is signaling to Washington that the old assumption that Canada is a country that will accommodate, that we will go along to get along, it is no longer true,” said Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. He said the Trump team mistook “good manners for meekness. You know, because Carney’s very polite and professional, they thought that he would be a pushover.”
In Carney’s latest remarks, “the frustration of dealing with these guys was palpable,” Hampson added.
Carney said last week his government was ending trade negotiations with the Trump administration rather than accepting a mounting list of concessions. He has urged other world leaders to join him in a united front against U.S. economic coercion. They’re watching to see what happens next.
Former Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni shared a video of Carney’s address. “Here is a speech I would like to hear in Europe,” he wrote.
Now Carney will be expected to follow through. The former central banker won a federal election last year by casting himself as the best person to steer Canada through a breakup with the United States. If this burgeoning trade war drags on, he might find it tricky to keep up the fight while also shielding Canadians from the impact.
Carney said Monday his government would return to talks only “when the Americans go to the negotiating table first, with the right attitude toward our industries and a true partnership.”
The administration, he said, can’t treat Canada as a subsidiary of the United States.”
So far, Carney appears to have the support of public opinion and provincial leaders.
“Canadians want their prime minister to stand up to this thug, to put it bluntly … so that puts the prime minister in a very strong position,” Hampson said. “When the pain hits, people may begin to feel differently, but right now it’s Team Canada across the board.”
Candace Laing, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said people “are worried and frustrated, yes, but they’re also incredibly motivated.”
“Canadians have spent more than a year waking up to tariff threats, changing deadlines and uncertainty about a relationship we had spent decades counting on like clockwork,” she told The Washington Post.
The government is preparing to provide tariff relief, and chambers of commerce are planning protective measures for businesses.
Laing, a member of Carney’s advisory committee on U.S. economic relations, said “businesses understand that Canada has to respond” to the escalation. At the same time, she said, “we should constantly ask whether it strengthens Canada’s hand without doing unnecessary damage to our own economy.”
According to University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, the U.S. tariffs could affect a relatively small share of Canadian exports to the United States. Before the latest escalation, he estimated that they would raise the average tariff on Canadian products in the U.S. by about 2.5 percent.
In the longer run, however, Tombe calculates they could cost Canada nearly 90,000 jobs.
Trump warned Monday he would slap higher tariffs on additional Canadian products beginning in January, including vehicles. The delay, and the Sept. 8 start date for Canada’s retaliatory levies, leave time for talks to resume.
The collapse of the talks is also highlighting the limits of Trump’s aggressive trade policy. Each side has blamed the other for the breakdown.
Carney says the U.S. made an offer he had to refuse. The administration introduced last-minute provisions to limit Ottawa’s freedom to make trade deals with other countries, he said, an “unacceptable” surrender of Canadian sovereignty.
U.S. negotiators sought to curb the promotion of Canadian or French-language content on platforms such as Netflix, he added, and mandatory product labeling in French, which, with English, is one of the country’s two official languages.
Carney is also responding to Canadian frustration with Trump’s threats and insults, including repeated comments about making Canada the 51st state.
On Saturday, Christine Fréchette, the premier of French-speaking Québec, renewed calls to buy Canadian goods. Fans in Vancouver and Montreal booed the U.S. national anthem before Major League Soccer games, Canadian media reported over the weekend.
Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, warned the tit-for-tat levies would hit “small firms hard,” including those selling machinery, food and jewelry. Still, he called Carney’s retaliation “an understandable response from our government.”
David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, said accepting the U.S. demands would reduce Canada to “the economic equivalent of the 51st state.” Eby also said he hoped other nations would follow in saying “enough.”
Trump’s trade wars and annexation threats have fueled efforts by U.S. partners around the world to curb security and economic dependence on Washington. But many officials including Carney have conceded that decoupling is a long and costly process, and have attempted concessions or conciliation.
As tensions escalated in recent days, Carney acknowledged the risks of pushing back. Canada is retaliating “reluctantly,” he said, “because we recognize that it will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians.”
Even so, he said, it was in the country’s best interests.
“Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us,” Carney said Saturday. And I promised: “That will never, ever happen.” We are keeping that promise.”
Laing, of the Chamber of Commerce, believes the two nations will be back at the table eventually. “In the meantime, we need to get back to the work we control, like diversifying trade and making our economy resilient,” she said. “None of that is dependent on what the U.S. decides to do with tariffs tomorrow.”