TORONTO—Over the past 17 months, as President Trump has freighted Canada’s economy with several rounds of punishing tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney has often repeated the guiding maxim for his negotiations with the U.S.: No deal is better than a bad one.
The approach has drawn broad support from Canadians and even Carney’s political opponents. But the gamble has risks. The U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner, and uncertainty over the future of that relationship has been a drag on business confidence as the prime minister is trying to attract outside investment. Polls show most Canadians, enraged by Trump’s tariffs and his frequent musings about making the country the 51st state, support taking a tough stance in negotiations with the U.S. They don’t trust the president to stick to the terms of his own deals. Carney enjoys high approval ratings.
More than 75% said he was right to walk away, the Angus Reid Institute, a pollster, reported Sunday, even as nearly 90% worried about the economic costs. Just 18% backed making concessions to get a deal, an Abacus Data poll found last week. If resolve weakens, he said, it will be “because the tariffs start to have a negative effect on Canada’s economy and retaliation starts to raise the price of things people in Canada need.
In quitting rather than acceding to what he called “unfair” 11th-hour U.S. changes to the deal, the prime minister charted a distinct path from other U.S. allies who have rushed to sign trade deals with Trump, some of which have drawn criticism for being too lopsided in favor of the U.S. “Most Canadians were in the mood for an aggressive stance,” said David Coletto, chief executive of Ottawa-based pollster Abacus Data. “The prime minister does not govern by public opinion polls or what social media says,” Wiseman said in an interview. Carney, who last year rolled back most of the retaliatory tariffs levied by his predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said he was imposing the levies “reluctantly,” acknowledging that they will raise costs for Canadians.
