The sombre mien—that’s what stayed with me. On Saturday, Mark Carney looked less like a prime minister briefing media on trade negotiations than a wartime leader telling his country a feared turn had finally arrived and preparing them for a long ordeal. The intense, all-out effort to stop crushing new tariffs had failed, with Carney grimly explaining that the United States insists on “short-term transactions” rather than “long-term partnerships” and that its commitments could no longer be assumed to hold.
American demands reportedly went well beyond tariffs, market access, and sectoral protections. They targeted Canada’s freedom to set domestic cultural policy, interpret agreements it had already signed, and conduct trade relations with third countries. The loss of our sovereignty was too high a price for preserving economic integration. What prime minister would accept Canada becoming a vassal state on his watch? With the collapse of talks, and Carney describing the country as being “attacked,” it’s hard not to feel like we have crossed into a different moment—that we are living in a slightly darker reality.
Throughout the weekend, The Walrus spoke to economists, policy experts, and political observers about what exactly has changed and what this new period might demand of Canada.
Read the agenda. Vance will never let Trump last until 2928. .Vance wants to be POTUS without the need for an election, and he gets his wish it Trump is deposed at the mid-terms. Vance is just giving Trump enough rope to hang himself.
The way Vance is maneuvering, not even the Democrats could blow the chances of the House and Senate going Democrat. This is all about Republican voters making the shift, and they are doing it regardless of what the Democrats do or say. The Republicans want Trump gone more than the Democrats do.