This alliance survived the greatest turmoil. Trump destroyed him just like that
It's over. After a year and a half of building economic and military partnerships, which survived two world wars, a great crisis, a cold war and attacks of September 11, the United States and Canada diverge in their directions.
This is what the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a television speech delivered this week to 41 million Canada citizens. All because of Donald Trump's customs.
“The old relations we had with the United States, based on the deepening integration of our economies and close cooperation in the field of security and military, came to an end,” said Carney on March 27. – We must fundamentally change our economy. We will have to make Canada succeed in a radically different world – he added.
The striking message, which also begins to take over the conservative political rival of Carney – Pierre Poilievre – shows how anger at the United States dominated the Canadian society and the election campaign. In the face of Trump's repetitive threats, who often proposed to make Canada “51. The state” of the US and erosion of economic ties between countries, it seems that Hardly anyone in Canada is already a peaceful attitude.
60 years of close cooperation and partnership
Its authorities decided to respond to Trump's decision – they announced duties in the amount of 25 percent. for cars imported from the USA that do not meet the requirements of DSOMCA, free trade agreements between Canada, the USA and Mexico. In this way, Canada wants to counteract the effects of duties that Trump applied to Canadian cars, steel and aluminum. He stated that he did it to punish Ottawa for the alleged lack of progress in the fight against fentanyl smuggling.
The automotive industry was the cornerstone of cooperation between Canada and the United States in recent years. Its origins date back to 1965, when a contract on automotive products between Canada and the United States was signed [znana jako Auto Pact lub APTA]. She established duty -free trade in cars between countries and helped develop the industry in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada.
Carney said that This pact initiated the “60-year period of close cooperation, partnership, increase in employment and prosperity.” He added that this era has just ended – “unless the United States and Canada will be able to develop a new comprehensive approach.”
Some American politicians share Carney's narrative.
“[Trump] He ended a friendship of several hundred years between the United States and Canada – our neighbor and the closest ally, “Senator Bernie Sanders wrote last week, Democrat, on X.
– The duties on Canada will harm mine. This will hurt our neighbors – said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republicanka from Alaska.
According to Carney, Trump's customs will cause much more damage than just a deterioration of relations between the USA and Canada. In his opinion, they may lead to the “rupture” of the global economy and the end of the US domination era dating back to World War II.
-The 80-year period in which the United States played the role of a global economic leader, when they created alliances based on trust and mutual respect, and were in favor of free and open exchange of goods and services, just came to an end-he added.
Disappointed trust
Carney said that this is a “tragedy”, but the “new reality” will force Canada to do two things: renegotiating the conditions of its relationship with the US and to take lead in the process of creating a new world order. It is to include “similarly thinking” countries that want to look for partners outside the USA.
After accelerated parliamentary elections, which will take place in Canada on April 28, she plans to take talks with Trump about the new economic partnership and security. Carney repeated that in a telephone conversation with the US president, which occurred on March 28, he agreed that anyone would be elected prime minister, he would start negotiations.
Although Carney and Poilievre generally disagree, they agree. Poilievre's transition to Trump's attack was something special in his campaign. Although he criticized the US President and the duties he announced, the main goal of his campaign was to criticize the “lost decade” in which liberals remained in power. He also tried to throw responsibility for this on Carney.
He announced that if he became the prime minister, on the first day of office he would call President Trump and demand that he quickly renew the conditions of Cusma (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement). However, this may not be the best step.
A group of specialists, which was included in the former deputy head of the Canadian armed forces, a former defense minister and a former national security advisor, prepared a report dedicated to US relations. In it, she stated that the next government should be careful in joining renegotia with Trump, “until there is a greater clarity in the current political chaos in Washington.”
The title of the report is well reflected in the mood in Canada: “Broken Trust: Management of an incredible ally”.
In search of new friends
The second thing that Canada must do, according to Carney, is to find new friends and build new alliances.
– Canada must look for opportunities to develop its trade, build its economy and protect its sovereignty elsewhere. Canada is ready to take the role of a leader in building a coalition of similarly thinking countries that share its values. We believe in international cooperation – he said on Thursday.
The first international journey, which Carney made after swearing at the prime minister last month, was a trip to France, and then to Great Britain. He wanted to confirm Canada ties with two countries. In recent days, Carney also talked to the leaders of Germany and Mexico. In addition, Canada has recently signed a contract with Australia for the supply of a new radar supervision system for the Arctic.
Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney in Ottawa, April 3, 2025.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Melanie Jola went to Brussels and stated that relations with the USA are “finished”. – This is my message for Europeans: relations with the USA will never be the same again – she said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
She added that Trump was trying to make a “global reset in trade” and started it with Canada.
– We buy more from the USA than Great Britain, France, China and Japan combined. When you treat your best customer in the way we have been treated … it means that you want to fundamentally change the way you act – she said.
“If the United States can do it to us, their closest friend, nobody is safe,” she also said before the G7 meeting in Quebec, in which the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio participated.
She declared that Canada was ready to put “maximum pressure” on the USA to try to bear the customs. On Friday, she also assured that Canadian retaliation duties reached $ 60 billion. Canadian (approx. PLN 164 billion). She added that the situation is “nightmarish”, but “The only people on earth who will really be able to make President Trump to change the course are the Americans themselves.”
No certainty
The legendary Canadian Bard Leonard Cohen once sang that “there is a crack in everything. This is how light gets”.
For Canada, this a bit of hope could have appeared in a last week's telephone conversation between Carney and Trump. After months of diminishing the former Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and calling him “Governor 51. The Republican called Carneyea” Prime Minister “and turned to him by name.
Since this conversation, he also stopped mocking Canada in social media and in the oval office. Perhaps he is too busy with the rest of the world – because this range has the effects of his new tariff regime.
However, when it comes to the United States, Canadians do not take anything for granted. On Friday, Carney returned to the campaign trail after two days spent in the prime minister's office in Ottawa. He went to Montreal, where he promised that if he was elected, he would increase funds for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“French culture and language are at the Canadian identity center, and today this identity is openly threatened by the President of the United States,” Carney said in French.
– President Trump wants to assimilate our culture, culture that defines Quebec and all of Canada. But we will never let it. We will protect her – he added.
