80 years of global U.S. economic leadership are over, Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking from Ottawa on Thursday, also said President Donald Trump’s latest tariff actions mean the end of Canada’s historic trade relationship with the U.S., but maintained the U.S. is still Canada’s main security and defence ally.
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Canada will take countermeasures intended to have “maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact here in Canada,” Prime Minister Mark Carney says.Speaking in Ottawa, Carney cautioned the road ahead will be difficult as Canada navigates the trade war.This morning, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced he would remove the federal sales tax on Canadian-made vehicles, a policy the NDP proposed last week.NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pitched wartime Victory Bonds as a way to fund Canada’s trade war.Trump hit dozens of countries around the world with his latest round of tariffs, though Canada and Mexico were spared from any further levies.Tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles, steel, aluminum and energy remain in place.Global financial markets are tumbling.Updates
April 3
7 minutes ago
Eby ‘deeply disappointed’ by Preston Manning’s call for Western separation
Andrew Kurjata
The B.C. premier was also asked about ex-Reform leader Preston Manning’s op-ed arguing that a federal Liberal victory would fuel a Western separatist movement.
“To have an op-ed at this moment that the path forward is to break up the country is bizarre,” Eby said, noting that he has never seen Canadian patriotism as high as it is now.
“I hope that Mr. Manning reconsiders his reintroduction into Canadian life with this particular proposal,” he said. “I just can’t fathom that mindset.”
17 minutes ago
B.C. premier hopes Trump and Carney can ‘sit down like adults’
Andrew Kurjata
Eby is pictured in front of the B.C. Legislature in March. (Mike McArthur)I’m a reporter in Prince George, B.C.
Premier David Eby is speaking to reporters for the first time today since Trump announced his plans for worldwide tariffs.
He says he’ll be meeting with Carney when the Liberal leader comes to British Columbia next week.
Tomorrow, Eby will be in Prince George to speak to leaders in the struggling forestry industry — which is being hit by duties, set to rise later this year, on its softwood used for building in the United States.
Eby says he’s glad to see a shift in how the president is talking about Canada and hopes it means “some stability and ultimately grounds to sit down like adults and come to an agreement about how our two countries can come together.”
However, he cautions that the president can make a post on Truth Social and throw everything into question at any time.
27 minutes ago
Manitoba facing trade war ‘on 2 fronts,’ says premier
Jenna Benchetrit
Like other Canadian provinces, Manitoba is staring down U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, and non-CUSMA-compliant goods.
But the province is also dealing with tariffs on pork and canola that were imposed by China, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew reminded reporters in Winnipeg.
“I stressed to the prime minister — and he was very receptive to this — that we’re still in Manitoba facing a trade war on two fronts,” said Kinew, who had a meeting with Carney and the other premiers last night.
Now that the tariffs are no longer just threats, there’s a “renewed” focus among the Team Canada coalition of federal and provincial representatives, Kinew said.
“There’s a ton of unity among the premiers,” he said. Kinew also spoke with Poilievre today, which he said he did in the interest of fairness to Manitoba’s Conservative voters.
39 minutes ago
How Canada’s retaliatory tariffs work, according to the PMO
Verity Stevenson
The percentage of some vehicles made with parts from the U.S. or Canada. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration/CBC)Hello, I’m your afternoon live page writer. We’re getting some more clarity on how retaliatory auto tariffs will apply from our Radio-Canada colleague Laurence Martin in Ottawa, who just spoke with the Prime Minister’s Office.
Here’s how it works, according to what the PMO told her:
A car is compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement if at least 75 per cent of its parts are “North American.” About 90 per cent of cars coming from the U.S. and Canada are compliant. Canada’s counter-tariffs apply to the parts of CUSMA-compliant cars that are American-made.So, if a car is 40 per cent “American,” 40 per cent of it will be subject to a 25 per cent levy.If an American car is not CUSMA-compliant, the 25 per cent tariff from Canada applies to the whole car.An added precision from Radio-Canada’s Yasmine Mehdi: Manufacturers will be expected to identify the provenance and value of each vehicle’s components crossing into Canada, which the PMO acknowledged was a “heavy” process.1 hour ago
‘The U.S. can’t have its cake and eat it too’
Peter Armstrong
A map showing Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. (The White House/CBC)Hi, I’m senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong.
Global stock markets saw more than $2 trillion wiped out as investors reacted to Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. Markets were caught off guard by how steep and how broad the tariffs were.
The sell-off highlights a key question at the heart of Trump’s trade policy. If Trump really wants to upend global trade, is he willing to stomach the inevitable pain that will cause?
“The U.S. can’t have its cake and eat it too,” says Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at the financial services firm Corpay.
He says the U.S. built the global trade system over the past 70 years and has been its primary beneficiary.
“If you overturn that world order, you’re going to pay the cost,” says Schamotta. “The question is whether (Trump) will have the stomach to stick with it and withstand the political pressure and negative consequences that will come with (this policy).”
1 hour ago
‘Everyone loses’ with tariffs
Meagan Fitzpatrick
U.S. resident Steve Lorey said he’s baffled by Trump’s trade war. (Meagan Fitzpatrick)News of the U.S. tariffs is being met with worry and confusion by Americans I talked to in Detroit today — and some apologies too.
I stopped people on the street in the downtown core and asked what they thought about the trade war now underway.
Joe Rasoul said he hopes Trump knows what he’s doing, because he’s scared of inflation.
“We may see the long-term benefit, but in the interim, I’m just afraid that we’ll see a lot of backlash,” he said.
Jackie Riegling said she doesn’t like the tariffs, and what they have done to the Canada-U.S. relationship. “I feel that it’s putting us at odds with our Canadian counterparts,” she said. “It’s tragic. It’s heartbreaking.”
Riegling said she thinks the increased cost of goods in her country as a result of the tariffs will hit lower-income Americans, who are already struggling.
Joel Kar is also bracing for a more expensive life in America. “I don’t understand how people can listen to Trump and think that they’re not going to pay more. I don’t understand it,” he said.
(Kar told me he’ll still drink Molson and Labatt beers and he loves all-dressed potato chips.)
Steve Lorey is similarly baffled by Trump’s love of tariffs.
“They are terrible. They are unfounded. They are illogical. It’s awful,” he said. “Everyone loses.”
I asked him what he’d like to say to Canadians today.
“I’m sorry. We’ve always been best friends,” he answered. “I hope we can get through this.”
2 hours ago
Poilievre disagrees with Reform founder that voting Liberal will spur Western secession
Catharine Tunney
Poilievre says ‘we need to bring all Canadians together’ in response to Preston Manning op-ed
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, speaking from Kingston, Ont., on Day 12 of the election campaign, responds to a question about an op-ed by Reform Party founder Preston Manning who argued Western Canada will secede if the Liberals win the election.
Hi, I’m a senior reporter with CBC’s Parliamentary bureau.
Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s name still holds a lot of weight in some conservative circles — which is why an opinion piece he wrote this week in the Globe and Mail is raising eyebrows.
Manning argued a vote for the Liberals “is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”
He suggested Western Canada, long angered by the Liberal’s natural resource policies, “simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government.”
“The next prime minister of Canada, if it remains Mark Carney, would then be identified in the history books, tragically and needlessly, as the last prime minister of a united Canada,” wrote Manning, who led the Official Opposition in the late 1990s.
When asked if agrees, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — who has worked with Manning since he was a teenager — gave a simple “no.”
“We need to unite the country. We need to bring all Canadians together in a spirit of common ground,” Poilievre said during a campaign stop in Kingston, Ont.
Poilievre’s comments come amid a renewed sense of patriotism and defence of Canadian sovereignty amongst voters in the face of Trump’s trade war.
2 hours ago
Singh goes notes-free in Victory Bonds pitch
Janyce McGregor
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks without notes or a teleprompter on Thursday at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. (Janyce McGregor/CBC)Hello, I’m a senior reporter in the Parliamentary bureau following the NDP campaign this week.
Something that might not be evident to folks watching campaign events on TV is how practised NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is, here in his third national election campaign.
Today at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Singh made his pitch for trade war “Victory Bonds” without any notes on his podium, and without a Teleprompter.
Other reporters have noted instances when the Liberal and Conservative leaders had Teleprompter issues, read too much from their notes during key announcements, or stumbled with their French.
Singh doesn’t flinch or hesitate when reporters ask him to repeat his answers in the other official language — he shows nearly as much ease as former prime minister Justin Trudeau did, while showing more respect and patience with reporters than we typically see at Pierre Poilievre’s or Mark Carney’s media availabilities.
Travelling with Singh this week, I’ve seen how retail politics comes pretty naturally to him. He’s great at walking into a room of volunteers or a local restaurant and radiating positive energy and enthusiasm.
I watched strangers approach him in the lounge on the ferry to Vancouver Island on Sunday night, for example. He was cheerful and open to a chat and a selfie, even at the end of a long day of touring — and the days on his tour are full this week, as we hopscotched through a lot of the NDP’s turf in Western Canada.
No one knows yet what the final outcome will be for NDP seats. But Singh’s skills as an athlete in the sport of campaigning have been evident.
2 hours ago
Legault says Quebec values align more with Europe than the U.S.
Sarah Leavitt
Legault speaks to the media in Montreal back in March. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)I’m a national reporter with CBC covering the province of Quebec. Premier François Legault says even though Canada was largely spared in Trump’s tariff announcements yesterday, he remains concerned, particularly given the auto tariffs in place.
“We still need to do business with the U.S., but I need to say it and it’s worth repeating: we are too dependent on the U.S.,” Legault said.
“It’s becoming urgent that we look at other markets — yes, the rest of the Canadian market, but also the European market.”
Legault said Quebec and Canadian values align more with Europe than with the U.S.
Meanwhile, primary producers in the aluminum industry are expecting they will be OK, given the province accounts for 90 per cent of production in Canada and can pivot to other markets, primarily Asia.
François Racine, chief executive officer of AluQuébec, said Trump’s plan to bolster production within the U.S. is misguided when it comes to aluminum.
“I think the president thinks that he can bring back the production capacity of aluminum that he had in the past and be more efficient,” Racine said.
“The reality is that they are in a deficit of about four million tonnes per year of aluminum, most of which comes to Canada.”
3 hours ago
Tariffs risk integrated auto sector that took ‘decades to build’
Meagan Fitzpatrick
Glenn Stevens Jr. is the head of MichAuto in Detroit. (Meagan Fitzpatrick/CBC)I’m in downtown Detroit, in the heart of the Motor City. The auto industry is vital to Michigan’s economy, with an estimated one in five jobs connected to it.
I just interviewed Glenn Stevens Jr., head of MichAuto, a group that represents a range of stakeholders in the sector. He said everyone is still assessing Trump’s tariff plan, and he’s concerned about disruptions to the North American supply chain.
“I can look right across the border here, across the river, and see Canada. We don’t look at that as another country, with regards to automotive. We look at it as a trade partner, ally and friend,” he told me in a boardroom at MichAuto’s offices, which have a view of the Detroit River and Windsor, Ont., on the other side of it.
“Our economies in Michigan and Ontario are absolutely interconnected, and it took years, decades to build that. We’re concerned about the unravelling of that,” he said.
His group is urging the White House to kick-start a renegotiation of the trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, sooner rather than later, in an effort to find a resolution to the tariff war now underway.
Trump wants U.S. auto companies to build everything on American soil, but Stevens said that would take years. I asked whether the companies intend to do as Trump wishes, and he said that’s unknown at this time.
“I think the mood is the same it’s been for a couple of months now,” he said. “A lot of uncertainty.”
