The federal Conservatives are calling for a readout of Mark Carney’s phone call on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump after the prime minister disputed claims from the White House that he walked back comments in a speech earlier this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Speaking before Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Carney says he told Trump he “meant what (he) said” during his widely-publicized speech and it was about responding to a “broader set of issues.”

He added that he told Trump that Canada was the first country to “understand” the change in U.S. trade policy and the country is adjusting to that.

“We’re responding positively by building partnerships abroad, we’re responding positively by building at home, and we’re prepared to respond positively by building that new relationship through CUSMA,” Carney said referring to the continental trade pact known as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

“He understood that, and it was a good conversation.”

It was a different version of events than presented by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

He told Fox News on Monday that he was in the room when Carney and Trump spoke and the prime minister was “aggressively walking back” his comments in Davos.

“Of course, Canada depends on the U.S.,” he said. “There’s much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade.”

Bessent said Canada is linked to the U.S. and that Carney should stop trying to “push his own globalist agenda.”

The prime minister said he he explained to Trump Canada’s recent tariff deal with China and the country’s broader strategy to diversify trade.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said Carney needs to “clarify what is going on” and the Prime Minister’s Office must offer a statement or readout of the phone call with Trump.

He said it was “unacceptable” that Canadians only learned of the latest call between the two leaders because of Bessent’s Fox News appearance, and Carney was breaking from “longstanding convention” by refusing to publicly release a readout of conversations between world leaders.

“In these challenging times, the public interest is best served by accurate, forthright information from government,” he wrote on X.

Chong added that it’s not the first time that Carney has had to reveal information from a call with Trump after public pressure.

During last spring’s election campaign, Carney had to acknowledge that Trump referred to Canada as the 51st state in a recent phone after it was leaked to the media.

Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, regularly released readouts of his conversations with world leaders, including Trump.

Carney’s office has occasionally released readouts of calls with other leaders — including during last fall’s trip to the G20 in South Africa — but not nearly as frequently as Trudeau.

The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond prior to deadline to iPolitics’ request for comment.

More to come…

with files from the Canadian Press