TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday cast Canada as moving quickly beyond its historical reliance on the United States after a whirlwind week in which he embraced the prospect of becoming the European Union’s first associate member.
Carney, who returned from Europe on Thursday night, said Canada and Europe had “launched a process for a new alliance.” He also called the latest U.S. tariffs a “miscalculation” and repeated that suspending trade talks with Washington last month was the right decision.
“Amidst this global rupture, we must move forward,” Carney said.
He spoke Friday to Liberal lawmakers gathered in Ottawa ahead of a new session of Parliament, his first public remarks since returning Thursday evening from Strasbourg.
A day after telling the European Parliament that Canada and Europe needed greater resilience so no country could control their markets, impair their sovereignty or dictate their choices, Carney pointed Friday to Canada’s fiscal position as another source of strength.
Carney, a former head of the central banks of both Canada and England, also appeared to contrast Canada with the United States as U.S. government borrowing costs remain significantly higher than Canada’s.
“We’re now seeing financial markets starting to change the pricing ... to separate the strong from the weak,” Carney said. “We are the strong. We are Canada strong.”
The remarks capped a seven-day stretch in which he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, convened major global investors in Toronto, met new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Liverpool and addressed the European Parliament.
In Strasbourg, Carney embraced a shift toward Europe, calling for a far deeper alliance spanning energy, critical minerals, defense, artificial intelligence, research and other strategic sectors where he says Canada can no longer afford to depend on a single country.
The next major step is an Oct. 29-30 Canada-EU summit in Montreal.
President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st state and threatened additional economic measures. Trade negotiations collapsed last month and remain suspended.
Carney also touted a business tax break announced at this week’s Canada Investment Summit that is expected to cut the effective tax rate on new investment to 6.4%, less than half the U.S. rate.
“We didn’t need a big beautiful bill. We needed a targeted initiative,” Carney said, drawing laughter with an apparent jab at Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law.
Carney also appeared to mimic Trump while boasting that a major clean-energy project would produce the equivalent of “18 Hoover Dams,” repeating the phrase as he twice used the president’s familiar accordionlike hand gesture.
The government announced nearly half a trillion dollars in investment commitments around the summit.
“In the last seven days, we have stood shoulder to shoulder with an ally, we’ve catalyzed record investment into our country, we’ve deepened our ties with Europe,” Carney said.
“It’s a lot, but that was the warm-up.”
