JAY GOLDBERG: Carney’s 'failure' to strike trade deal with Trump was story of the year

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs might have been named The Canadian Press News Story of the Year, but Prime Minister Mark Carney’s failure to adequately deal with them ought to have been.

When Carney announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal party, after former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation early last year, Carney sold himself to Canadians as the man who could meet the moment and deal with the Trump juggernaut.

“I know the president, I’ve dealt with the president in the past in my previous roles when he was in his first term, and I know how to negotiate,” Carney told Liberal party voters when running for the party leadership.

Carney didn’t deal with the crisis head-on

Carney won the Liberal leadership and became prime minister in March.

Instead of dealing with the crisis head-on, Carney decided to call an election, hoping instead to secure a majority government.

Trump’s tariffs loomed on April 2. Rather than ensure his government was fully able to deal with the crisis that would then ensue, Carney pulled the plug on Parliament and had the governor general call an election for April 28, ensuring the country would be in the midst of a federal election campaign when the tariff freight train hit.  While the Liberals were re-elected on April 28, the Grits fell just shy of a majority government win. Instead, the Liberals were handed a third straight minority.

Canadian negotiators were informed in March that, although the tariffs would take effect on April 2, negotiations would commence promptly and Canada would be at the top of the negotiation list.

There was much talk that a deal would be had by the time the G7 was held in Kananaskis in June. That didn’t happen. Instead, Carney and Trump agreed to work toward a deal by July 21.

Everything then almost went off the rails when Trump targeted the Liberal government’s digital services tax, which was about to be collected for the first time from U.S. companies. In an apparent attempt to achieve a deal, Carney scrapped the entire tax at the eleventh hour.

When Carney scrapped the tax on June 29, he insisted that “today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit.”

Still, July 21 came and went with no deal.

Months went by. Then, in mid-fall, when it seemed as though a sectoral deal to eliminate some tariffs might be nearing a positive outcome, Ontario Premier Doug Ford decided to air an anti-tariff ad using clips of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan talking about the danger of tariffs.

Trump was so irate about the ad that he “HEREBY TERMINATED” negotiations with Canada.

Carney initially tried to act as if he’d never seen the ad before, until Ford revealed that he had shown the ad to Carney before it ever aired.

While relations between Carney and Trump seem to have improved since the Ontario ad fallout in late October, no deal has come to fruition.

When asked a few weeks ago when he had last spoken to Trump, Carney’s reply was, “Who cares?”

PM sold himself as a negotiator

Furthermore, just days ago, Carney told Canadians that a Canada-U.S. trade deal on key sectors was “unlikely” as the renewal of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) looms next year.

The fact is, Carney sold himself to Liberal party members and later Canadians as the man who could negotiate with Trump.

And, while Carney seems to get along better with Trump than Trudeau did, no progress whatsoever has been made under Carney’s watch.

Yes, Trump’s tariffs were certainly a newsmaker. But equally important is the fact that Carney sold himself as the man to deal with them. And, to date, there has been no progress on that file.

As 2026 nears, Canadians must hope that Carney will live up to the negotiator reputation he sold voters on earlier this year and deliver some wins. Without a firm deal with the U.S., Canada’s economy will continue to stagnate. And, with the CUSMA renewal deadline looming next year, Canada can’t afford for Carney to deliver a goose egg for a second year in a row.