As the cliché goes, a week may be a long time in politics, but three days, one hour and 30 minutes is, as it turns out, just enough time for a tentative cross-border trade deal to fall apart.

For those who might not have done the math, that is exactly how much time elapsed between United States President Donald Trump announcing, via Truth Social, that, “subject to the finalization of documents,” Canada and the U.S. had reached a “DEAL” just hours before his threat to impose sweeping new 50 per cent levies against billions of dollars in Canadian exports was slated to take effect to Prime Minister Mark Carney serving notice that he had told his negotiating team to walk away from the table.

“Over the past 18 months, Canada’s new government has focused on building our strength at home, diversifying our partnerships abroad, and striking a fair deal with the United States,” he noted in a statement released just minutes before the three-day extension to the original Aug. 19 deadline was slated to expire.

“Throughout, our goal has been to secure the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any deadline. In recent weeks, we made important progress toward improving Canada’s position as having the best deal in the world with the U.S. However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians. As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa. They have worked hard, in good faith, to defend the interests of Canadians throughout these negotiations up until the very last minute. However, last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

With the new 50 per cent levies now back on track to kick in at midnight, Canada “will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect workers and businesses,” and “in the coming days, the government will introduce additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses,” he added.

The new red-letter date — the first, it’s worth noting, to be unilaterally imposed by Canada since this latest trade dispute began: Sept. 8, which is when those new countertariffs will come into force, although the exact scope — and specific targets — are still under wraps, at least for now.

Even before the deal was undone, Ontario Premier Doug Ford weighed in on the prospect in a letter sent to Carney just before the original Aug. 19 deadline, which “lays out in unusually specific terms how Ford believes Canada should respond if the U.S. follows through with additional tariffs under Section 338,” as iPolitics reported on Saturday.

“Ford called for a ‘coordinated dollar-for-dollar, tariff-for-tariff response’ and the continuation of existing Canadian countermeasures, arguing that backing down in response to further U.S. tariffs would weaken Canada’s negotiating position,” iPolitics noted.

“The premier also urged Ottawa to consider Canada’s energy and natural resources as negotiating tools, specifically to electricity, energy and critical minerals, as strategic advantages that could be deployed as part of a broader Team Canada response. ‘Electricity, energy and critical minerals infrastructure should be viewed as Team Canada assets that contribute to Canada’s broader negotiating leverage,’ Ford wrote.”

Carney and his team will likely be expected to provide more details on both Canada’s planned response and his pledge to support industries, businesses and workers targeted by the new levies, as well as those that have been dealing with the fallout from the White House-initiated trade war since the first round of sectoral tariffs on steel and aluminum, softwood and auto parts.

For his part, Conservative Canada – U.S. trade critic Shuv Majumdar wants the government to “release the full details of the proposed deal from which (he) chose to walk away on Friday evening,” along with “the draft text of any agreement that both governments have seen,” as outlined in a letter to Canada – U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc released on Sunday.

“Even after addressing Canadians and the media, the public and Members of Parliament still remain in the dark on your government’s demands in negotiations with the Trump administration,” it notes.

“To be clear, we are not asking for negotiating secrets. Nor do we want you to share anything that the US administration does not already know. Rather, we are asking for information that both the US administration and your own government would already know, because both were involved in the back and forth. This information will allow all Canadians to debate and discuss the way forward as a country. “

In a separate statement posted to X on Saturday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said his party was “disappointed that the United States has chosen to impose further unjustified tariffs on Canada.”

“Canada cannot accept one-sided tariffs that will deindustrialize our country,” he noted.

“Nor can we accept a bad deal. Instead, we must continue the fight for tariff-free trade. Later today, I will seek a call with the Prime Minister to discuss what we can do to fight for our workers, businesses, and economy. Conservatives will always put our country first.”

As yet, there’s no word on when — or whether — that briefing will take place, but if it does, it’s a good bet that Carney would extend the same offer to the other opposition leaders.

Meanwhile, the Team Carney front benchers currently on deck to hit the end-of-summer ministerial circuit this week should be ready to field questions on exactly why Canada walked away from the table.

That’s particularly true for Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller, whose sweeping mandate includes language and culture, both of which were cited by Carney as examples of areas where the final round of American asks went too far, as well as the Online Streaming Act, which was reportedly set to be dialed back if the deal had gone forward, and who, according to his office, is set to unveil “major funding” for an unnamed local “cultural organization” to “develop a new multipurpose hall” during an afternoon appearance in Montreal, Que. (Monday p.m.)

Earlier in the day, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson will join local Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos for a “clean energy investment announcement” at an unnamed location in London, Ont. (Monday a.m.), with Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali booked in for a separate reveal related to “clean energy funding” in Red Deer, Alta. (Monday p.m.)

Elsewhere in Alberta, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu teams up with Calgary-area Liberal MP Corey Hogan to launch the Transportation and Supply Chain Workforce Alliance — which, as per the notice, will “tackle critical labour shortages and representation gaps across Canada’s multimodal supply chains, spanning road, rail, air, marine, and warehousing”— during an afternoon visit to the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University. (Monday p.m.)

Later this week, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will host his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman, during a two-day visit to Canada that “will provide an opportunity for both ministers to strengthen economic and financial cooperation between Canada and India, discuss shared priorities for promoting sustainable economic growth and investment, and exchange views on global economic developments,” according to the advisory. (Wednesday through Thursday)

Also on the radar: With just one week to go until voters head to the polls in a trio of high-stakes byelections, New Democrat leader Avi Lewis is set to wrap up a four-day stretch on the hustings in Beaches — East York alongside New Democrat hopeful Shannon Devine and “local volunteers.”  (Monday through Tuesday)