Donald Trump and Mark Carney expected to talk amid auto tariff war

Liberal leader Mark Carney stepped back from his campaign today and into his role as prime minister, holding a cabinet committee meeting and telling Canadians a conversation with U.S. President Trump is officially in the works.

Carney says he expects a chat in the next day or so following Trump’s recent 25 percent tariffs on imported autos.

“I will make clear to the president that those interests are best served by cooperation and mutual respect, including of our sovereignty,” says Mark Carney.

Carney says U.S. President Donald Trump reached out last night to schedule a call — and he anticipates a chat within the next day or two following Trump’s recent trade escalation on foreign automotives.

“This is a negotiation. In part a negotiation where we know certain things, and we know that there was going to be initiative on automobiles — it was brought forward to yesterday,” says Carney.

Today, Carney halted his campaign to return to Ottawa to lead a Canada-U.S. relations cabinet committee meeting after Trump signed an executive order yesterday, threatening 25 per cent levies on all automobiles and auto part imports.

Despite the White House making concessions on Canadian cars made up of mostly U.S. parts, Carney didn’t reveal how the government will retaliate ahead of the U.S.’ tariff blitz on April 2.

“My message to President Trump is “knock it off”, stop attacking America’s friends, start trading so we can once again be richer and stronger,” says Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre

While campaigning on increases to personal investments, Poilievre said he believes a Carney-Trump meeting will not be an effective one.

“The president would love nothing more to keep the Liberals in power, so he can keep abusing our economy and taking advantage of Canada,” says Poilievre.

“No company should think they should take any of the manufacturing capacity in Canada out of this country … we’re not gonna let that happen. In addition, we want to encourage people to buy Canadian,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says.

Singh changed up his itinerary and was in Windsor today, promising a GST break on Canadian auto.

In the midst of the trade war, Canada’s party leader’s have touted new trading relationships with other nations, something President Trump threatened to act on, if done.

He took to his Truth Social platform to say that if the European Union and Canada work together, he will impose additional tariffs over claims about hurting the U.S. economy.

“We choose our own allies in Canada, we choose how we engage those allies … so I take note of the president’s comment, I don’t take direction from it,” Carney responded.