USA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to meet today with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, a meeting that political and industry observers are watching to see whether it brings any tariff reprieve.

A senior government official, speaking on a not-for-attribution basis ahead of the trip, tempered expectations about what could be delivered during their second sitdown in Washington since Carney took office back in April.

“Well, I guess he’s going to ask about tariffs ’cause a lot of companies from Canada are moving into the United States,” Trump said when asked about the upcoming meeting on Monday. He did not name which companies.

This is the CBC’s live feed.

Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr says it’s unlikely Ottawa will withdraw from its contract with the United States to purchase 16 F-35 fighter jets, because the aircraft are currently under production.

Fuhr told CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live that he doesn’t think Prime Minister Mark Carney will try to get out of the contract for the American-made jets despite comments from former Defence Minister Bill Blair in March that Canada was reconsidering the purchase amid trade tensions with the United States.

BRANTFORD, Ontario (AP) — Wearing protective gloves and earplugs, a worker feeds lengths of wood into a machine that makes an ear-splitting whine as it automatically cuts a groove into the end of each piece.

Nearby, stacks of wooden wedges wait to be slotted into those grooves to form the beginnings of a hockey stick. Further down the Roustan Hockey production line, other workers are busy shaping, trimming, sanding, painting and screen printing as they turn lumber into a Canadian national symbol.

h/t Shasta

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has penned a scathing letter to the prime minister ahead of his meeting with the U.S. president this week, saying Mark Carney has been a disappointment on the trade file and needs to come back from this trip with some wins for Canada.

In the letter, which was shared with CBC News, Poilievre said Carney promised to “negotiate a win” for Canada and deliver some tariff relief this summer, but that didn’t work out as planned.

As trade negotiations with the United States sputtered over the summer, Prime Minister Mark Carney started talking about a new, domestically oriented solution for Canada’s tariff-battered industries.

“We have the potential to become our own best customer for steel, but we will lose that ability if we don’t manage the profound transformation now under way in the industry,” Mr. Carney said from the floor of a metal fabrication plant in Hamilton in mid-July as he unveiled a bundle of measures to keep out foreign steel and boost domestic demand for Canadian mills.

A few weeks later, he announced a support package for the lumber industry. And in early September, he outlined the pillars of Ottawa’s new “comprehensive industrial strategy.”

Canadians do not appear to be getting over it.

When President Donald Trump returned to office with tariffs and declarations of Canada as the 51st state, snowbirds turned tail across the U.S. That was spring, an easy time to head back north.

Now, however, as fall colours signal winter’s imminent arrival, new data show little sign of Canadians flocking back to the sunny south for the cold months.

Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, the United States’ top diplomat to Canada, has come under fire for being undiplomatic. But this criticism is misguided. At a time when Canadian workers and business leaders face unprecedented uncertainty, we need more candour, not less.

Since arriving in Canada, Mr. Hoekstra has taken part in multiple panels, podcasts, and press interviews, and has been unfailingly frank in explaining U.S. President Donald Trump’s thinking. That’s his job. His role as ambassador is to faithfully reflect his government’s positions.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Mark Carney “better fight like hell” during his trip to Washington, D.C., next week.

“You’re going down there Tuesday. You better fight like hell. Don’t roll over and keep fighting,” Ford said during a rally in front of the Stellantis Assembly Plant in Brampton on Saturday afternoon.

Carney is set to travel to the U.S. capital for a “working visit and meeting” with President Trump, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

I get the feeling Ford is now living in the past.