A few days after winning a spectacular election on the anti-Trump platform, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet on Tuesday with President Trump, who repeatedly threatened his sovereignty by imposing tariffs on America's closest allies, neighbors and top trading partners.
Due to the tattered relationship between the two countries, the two leaders will sit in the White House for their first face-to-face discussion.
Trump has argued that Canada doesn't deserve to be independent because it relies on US trade and defense, and is talking about making it a part of the US.
Mr. Carney was a political beginner, as Canadians saw him as a stable hand to negotiate with Mr. Trump and guide Canada through economic turmoil due to his background as a policymaker and private sector executive.
During the global financial crisis of 2008, Carney served as governor of the Bank of England's Bank of Canada during Brexit, establishing himself as one of the world's most prominent central bankers.
He faces impossible balancing acts.
Canadians who gave him the chance would hope that, as he promised, he would push back Trump's disrespect and threatening rhetoric that threatened his rhetoric towards Canada.
But he also needs to avoid openly opposing Trump at the luncheon they work for.
There was no solid agenda to enter the meeting. On Monday, Trump said he was “not sure” what Carney wanted to discuss. Canadian officials framed the meeting as the first step to the two leaders getting to know each other and starting a talk that is likely to last for a while.
The importance of chemistry
Just like with Trump, there's a lot to do with his chemistry with untested Carney.
The two may not be a natural match. Mr. Carney is a sometimes hard-core former banker known to not suffer from fools. He revealed his snappish side and bone-dry sense of humor during the campaign when he was pushed or cornered.
However, he managed to gain respect for Trump's private sector experience. He worked for Goldman Sachs for over a decade and later became the leader of the boardroom of a large corporation.
“I think he's a really good guy,” Trump said of Carney in an interview with NBC program Meet the Press on Sunday.
Anodyne's statement improved his feelings towards Mr. Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau. The two fell out of the public in 2018 and their relationship did not recover.
Trudeau visited Trump after his reelection at María Lago when he was still prime minister and sued his country's lawsuit against tariffs.
Trump has since said during that dinner, Trudeau said Canada would be crushed if the US imposes tariffs. Trudeau has never confirmed this version of the event, but Trump cited Trudeau's assumption statement that he argues Canada is not worthy of the country because Canada is overly dependent on the United States.
He began calling Trudeau “Governor Trudeau” and calling Canada “51st State.”
Despite his more respectful language about Carney, it was clear that Trump had not retreated from his main claims about Canada.
“I'm a real estate man in the heart,” he told NBC. “Looking down the artificial lines painted with the ruler years ago, it was an artificial line, and it went straight.
What is the problem?
In a call with Trudeau in February, Trump said he didn't like the border treaty between the two countries, claiming he's been repetitive since then, raising doubts about the water-sharing agreement between the two countries.
The president's statement suggests he is focusing on renegotiating an agreement that regulates the relationship between the two neighbors.
“The United States wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” Carney said in his acceptance speech last week. “President Trump is trying to destroy us, so he's making sure he owns us. That's never going to happen.”
Trump has imposed tariffs on many Canadian goods, but some of the items scheduled for the tariffs are exempt as he changed his mind and spread the confusion.
Canada has applied retaliatory tariffs on US goods, the only country outside of China to take that step, but Carney says there are limitations to the approach.
The United States, Canada and Mexico have long signed free trade agreements known as the ragged USMCA. Renegotiating the New Deal is one of Mr. Carney's goals.
“We subsidize Canada to adjust $200 billion a year,” Trump told NBC on Sunday, citing false figures about the trade balance of both countries. In reality, last year, the US had a $63.3 billion trade deficit with Canada, according to US government data. If Canadian oil exported to the US is excluded, the US has surplus.
Trump complains that Canada is falling behind in military spending at NATO. NATO has a target for members who have committed to defending 2% of economic production. Mr. Carney has committed to achieving that goal by the end of the decade.
And Trump said Canadian industries such as dairy products and banks are unfairly protected, making it difficult to access US competitors.
Many of the relationships Trump calls for are unfair and agreed as part of a trade deal he negotiated and signed in his first term.
