“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted a broader trade agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer within reach and gave his strongest signal yet that talks to lift 25-per-cent auto tariffs will be punted to next year’s review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.

The prime minister, speaking on the eve of a nine-day trip to Asia where he will meet Trump, said he is still working to get a better deal for autoworkers and that “starts with working up the supply chain on (eliminating tariffs on) steel and aluminum. We go to that, so it’s part of a bigger set of negotiations with the Americans.”

U.S.-based truck maker Paccar Inc. has laid off 300 workers at its Sainte-Thérèse, Que., plant, just weeks before a 25 per cent U.S. import tariff on commercial trucks is set to take effect on Nov. 1.

The manufacturing plant builds Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks and depends heavily on exports to the U.S.

After giving Stellantis close to $105 million to retool two Ontario plants, the federal government is now reviewing the contract to see if the automaker violated the deal by announcing it’s moving some production to the U.S.

Stellantis publicly revealed its plans last week to move its Jeep Compass production from Brampton, Ont., to Illinois.

Asked by CBC News if he wants to recover taxpayer money already given to Stellantis, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne suggested the government is taking action.

OTTAWA—Auto industry and union representatives fear the Mark Carney-led Liberal government is willing to push off tough auto sector talks about American tariffs to whenever formal negotiations on a scheduled review of the North American free trade deal get underway.

But they warn that is not an option, and puts the future of major companies and thousands of jobs at risk.

Lana Payne, head of Unifor, the largest private sector union that speaks for hundreds of thousands of auto, aluminum, and forestry workers, said in an interview Trump’s punishing tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, copper and forestry are “strategic, surgical and designed to destroy Canada’s industrial economy.”

Are we close to reaching a deal with the Americans and if so does it include auto? It’s tough to tell based on what the government is saying, but their actions are speaking louder than their words.

On Tuesday morning, Mark Carney’s point man on cross-border trade was downplaying a story in the Globe and Mail that said the government was close to a deal with Trump on steel, aluminum and energy — but not autos.

“Lest it be forgotten, cultivating oligopolies rather than competition is more Canada’s economic forte. We have a banking oligopoly, an insurance oligopoly, a telecom oligopoly, an airline oligopoly, a retail-grocery oligopoly, big oil, big rail and a beer oligopoly too.”

It’s not going well. The depth of despair in Ottawa over tariffs and trade talks with the U.S. has inspired a sudden conviction that “competition” is the new “sustainability.”

Canada’s climate-change strategy is now a “climate-competitiveness strategy” according to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

As the saying goes, when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them. And where cars are concerned, Donald Trump has been telling us exactly who he is.

He warned in April, “We don’t really want Canada to make cars for us.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently confirmed this goal, telling a Canadian audience “car assembly is going to be in America, and there is nothing Canada can do about it.”

Rah Rah!

Several Canadian snowbirds reported they were fingerprinted and photographed at the U.S. border this month when registering for their winter stay, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told CBC News is now standard procedure.

Jacquie and Steve Ree of Ladysmith, B.C., arrived at the Peace Arch Border Crossing between Surrey, B.C., and Blaine, Wash., on Oct. 9.

The snowbirds knew they’d have to comply with a new registration requirement for travellers staying in the United States longer than 29 days. So when a CBP officer said they could complete the process at the border, the couple agreed, unaware of what lay ahead.

Five days before the new president was inaugurated, Justin Trudeau gathered the premiers in Ottawa to discuss the coming crisis.

They emerged, Trudeau said, with a “shared sense of purpose, a shared sense of understanding and a commitment to stand together on a united path forward.” Seated to Trudeau’s right, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said it was “truly a Team Canada approach we’re taking.”

The assembled first ministers didn’t agree on everything. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was notably unwilling to consider a surcharge on oil exports to the United States. But Ford offered a thoughtful — perhaps even inspiring — take on the display of some broader political unity.