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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump about efforts to protect the Arctic ahead of their attendance at the NATO summit in Turkey in two weeks.
Carney said the U.S. president called him Wednesday for a “long discussion” that involved other senior officials, including U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Carney said he and Trump also spoke about NATO, Iran and the broader situation in the Middle East. He declined to offer details but said the discussion touched on “both current and structural” issues.
“It was a very constructive conversation, those things we’re working on together. I think those are best left until they come to fruition,” Carney said.
The prime minister made the comments to reporters during a rare press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa to mark the end of the spring parliamentary sitting.
Asked about past U.S. claims that Canada is a free rider in NATO, the prime minister said the country is “pulling its weight” in the alliance.
“There’s more to do, without question, but we have moved to meet the two per cent target,” he said.
“We have a track to getting overall four per cent by the end of this decade.”
In March, NATO published estimates that suggest Canada met its alliance defence spending target of two per cent of GDP for the first time over the past year.
The prime minister also said Canada is moving ahead on major military purchasing decisions, including the selection of a preferred contractor for the navy’s new submarine fleet.
During a press conference in the same room later Thursday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney should have raised U.S. tariffs and the renewal of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement with Trump. Carney said he did not talk trade with Trump.
“The aluminum, steel, auto and lumber workers are desperate for their jobs and their paycheques, and Mr. Carney has a long conversation with the president and doesn’t even bring it up?” he said. “What could be a greater priority to this country?”
Poilievre said Carney has made a “phenomenal amount of concessions” to the United States “while getting nothing in return,” citing the termination of the digital services tax and some counter-tariffs and Ottawa acquiescing to U.S. calls for higher defence spending.
“Many of those things needed to happen, but why not bring them to the negotiating table and get something in return? Instead, he’s got double the tariffs on aluminum and steel and triple on lumber,” Poilievre said.
