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“All fronts, all the time”: an interview on Trump, Canada, and Carney with the Hon. Jean Charest
Former Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has upended the long-standing and close US-Canada friendship in ways that were once unthinkable. But how exactly should Ottawa deal with the “America First” president? Is all of the upheaval merely a readjustment, or is the relationship fundamentally different now?
Few people are better positioned to assess the situation than the Hon. Jean Charest, former premier of Quebec, former federal cabinet minister and Progressive Conservative leader, and one of Canada’s most expert voices on international affairs and trade.
GZERO’s Tasha Kheiriddin sat down with Charest this week to learn what he thinks of what has transpired and how the two countries should move forward. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Let’s talk about the recent meeting between Mark Carney and Donald Trump.Was it a win for Canada?
A: A win. Carney’s reply on the 51st state was a very well-thought-out response, as was saying, “Some things are not for sale, like the White House where we are now.” They got the tone right, they got the message right, and the level of seduction was just right without being too strong. And then they could get on with business.
Q: As you know from experience, relationships between Canada and the US are critical. How can Carney keep it in a positive place?
A: The key for Mr. Carney will be to seek out and identify the things that he can help Mr. Trump accomplish. What are his objectives? Be helpful for him, not confrontational.
Q: Let’s talk about the renegotiation of CUSMA, or USMCA. Trump said, “It will happen” but was vague about the time frame. Should Canada push for a faster renegotiation, or just focus on the tariffs?
A: I would do both. I’ll share an anecdote with you. I was on the set of CNN in Washington a few days after April 2. I crossed paths with Howard Lutnick, whom I didn’t know. We introduced each other and it’s kind of a one-, two-minute conversation where you just say hello. But three times he mentioned CUSMA, three times. So that’s obviously what they have in mind.
Why? Because it’s something you can work off, as opposed to reinventing it. But there’s a technical part to renegotiating CUSMA, a consultation process within Congress, 240 days. And so that’s a process that we should initiate as rapidly as possible.
In the meantime, we need to undo the tariffs on aluminum and steel. And that’ll take some time. The issue on steel is China, their overproduction and flooding the markets. And that reverberates all the way into the Canadian market and then the American market.
Q: Where do you think Congress will land on tariffs, and how important do you think voices from industry will be, from both sides of the border?
A: We should be on all fronts, all the time. Full press. There are no small rooms, there are no people we’re talking to who are not important. Governors, mayors, business people, congressmen, senators. This will break the logjam, if there is a concert of people who have had contact with Canadians and are able to repeat our lines.
And Trump may be sanctioned by the markets if he doesn’t change course. If we can offer him an off-ramp that would allow him to signal to the markets that we are moving ahead, that would reassure them.
Q: Let’s talk about China. We know that Trump is focused on China in his trade war. But Canada has issues with China, which has tariffed our canola and seafood. How should Canada act to protect our industries but not jeopardize our relationship with the US?
A: I think the short-term threat is that the Americans conclude a trade deal at the expense of Canada, which they’ve done before. We’re also anticipating that the Americans will want to include restrictions on dealing with China in their trade deals.
We have to better identify what our core interests are with China. Now, that includes selling them goods and agricultural products and energy: natural gas, LNG, and oil. We are replacing the energy that the Americans are not selling to China with Trans Mountain. Their sales have gone down, ours have gone up radically. So, energy is the future in the relationship with China as far as I’m concerned.
Q: Let’s talk about the military. Trump praised Canada for ramping up our military commitments. What more should our government do?
A: I think one thing that Prime Minister Carney is intuitively right about is enlarging the discussion to cooperation, which includes NORAD. It isn’t just about buying equipment, it isn’t just about doing more, it’s also about cooperation that is fundamental to the security of the United States and Canada.
There are major procurement issues in terms of NORAD and modernizing. There’s a reinvestment that’s happening now that I think is covered at least at 90% by the Americans and 10% by us, which is not a very good story on the Canadian side. And then there’s spending 2% of GDP. Prime Minister Carney has accelerated the time frame to 2030 as opposed to 2032, which is fine. Trump is right about that.
Q: Fentanyl and border security came up as well. We are making progress on both fronts. How important do you think that will be going forward?
A: We have to tell our story. There’s an issue of proportionality on the border. Fentanyl is a horrible scourge on our society. But we are not the problem. And we’re not the problem on immigration, so we don’t want to become the problem. I think what we’re doing now pretty much covers it.
Q: During the recent election campaign, Carney said the relationship we had between Canada and the US is over. After the meeting this week, do you think that’s true? Or is it fundamentally changed?
A: I think most of us would prefer to say it’s fundamentally changed. The word over sounds pretty absolute.
Q: It does.
A: I mean, as any of us who’ve been in a relationship, if you tell your partner it’s over, you’re not going to be sleeping in the same bed anymore, living in the same house. So it’s not over. Whatever happens, we will continue to be each other’s biggest customers. But even when Mr. Trump leaves office, it would be a mistake for us to believe that we’re going to return to something “normal.” It’s fundamentally changed. I don’t think it’s over, but it won’t return to what it was before.Graphic charting the strength of the dollar overtime.
The US dollar is the most widely used currency in the world, underpinning the vast majority of global finance and trade.
And the fact that America’s own currency is the lifeblood of the world economy — a function of US economic strength, military power, and political stability — gives the US what has been called an “exorbitant privilege.” That is, the US gets to borrow at lower rates than anyone else with its level of debt, and the country can exert tremendous power over global financial flows.
But huge demand for the US dollar has also helped to boost its value over the years, in ways some economists — particularly those close to Donald Trump — say has been harmful to the US.
After all, a stronger dollar fuels cheap imports while making America’s exports less competitive. The global greenback, they say, has been better for Wall Street than for Main Street, and some want Trump to use America’s economic and military power to force other countries to reset and reduce the value of the dollar. A narrower version of this was done in 1985 with the so-called Plaza Accord. (You can learn more about that here.)
For historical perspective, here’s a look at the dollar’s value over the half-century since US President Richard Nixon removed the currency from the gold standard, allowing it to float freely.
We’ve used a flexible, trade-weighted index, which measures the dollar against the currencies of countries with which the US trades most.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre arrives on Parliament Hill for a meeting of the Conservative caucus following the federal election, in Ottawa, on May 6, 2025.
Canada’s Conservative Party caucus convened in Ottawa Tuesday for the first time since suffering a stunning federal election defeat last week. Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his Carleton seat, acknowledged the election results were “disappointing” but insisted that the party’s 41% vote share — the highest since the 1980s — was a milestone, and that the party must now “broaden our team.”
But who’s in charge? Parliamentary rules require the opposition leader to have a seat in the House of Commons, so until Poilievre secures a new seat through an upcoming by-election, party MPs have appointed former leader Andrew Scheer as interim opposition leader. The caucus also voted to adopt the Reform Act, which opens the way to a leadership review. Caucus has only used this act once, in 2022, to oust then-leader Erin O’Toole after he lost the 2021 election. His successor? Poilievre.
Can Poilievre avoid the same fate? For now, it appears he has the support to remain party leader – but he is not taking anything for granted. In a new video message, released after Tuesday’s meeting, the Conservative leader pledged to “learn and grow.” But that may not be enough for senior conservatives, who reportedly want “seismic changes” if he is to stay on, including the removal of his top advisor, Jenni Byrne, blamed by many for the party’s loss.US House Speaker Mike Johnson talks with reporters in the US Capitol on May 8, 2025.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson is walking a tightrope on Medicaid — and wobbling.
After intense pushback from moderate Republicans, Johnson abandoned some of the GOP’s most aggressive proposals to cut federal funding for Medicaid, including a plan that would cap the federal government’s per capita grants to states for the program.
The background: A budget framework passed earlier this year commits Congress to slashing some $1.5 trillion in spending in order to fund the extension of President Donald Trump’s first term tax cuts without further ballooning the deficit.
Why the climbdown?The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 5.5 million Americans would lose coverage under the mooted cost cuts. More than 70 million Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid, a program that is viewed positively by nearly 80% of the country, according to recent polls.
What’s the president’s position? Trump has said he will not touch entitlements, including social security and Medicaid, which further narrows the GOP’s realistic options.
The president has imposed a deadline of Memorial Day for a “big beautiful” budget bill. We’re watching to see how the Republicans close the gap, without turning off the tap.
US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 6, 2025.
The first official meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump was friendlier than you might expect given the recent tensions in the relationship. Carney described Trump as a “transformational” president, while the US leader said he had “a lot of respect” for his Canadian counterpart.
It wasn’t all pleasantries, however: Trump again said Canada should become the 51st state, to which Carney cautioned the former real estate magnate that “there are some places that are never for sale.”
Trump’s response? “Never say never.”
The start of a beautiful friendship? Despite some disagreements, the two leaders agreed to begin talks on new economic and security frameworks. The Canadian dollar even rallied slightly after the “positive” exchange.
But tariffs remain in place: Canada and the US are keeping their tariffs on each other’s steel, aluminum, and auto industries for now.
Next stop, the G7. The two men will meet again, along with other world leaders, when Canada hosts the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, next month. Ahead of that, Carney gave Trump a gift. What was it? A Kananaskis Country Golf Course hat, naturally, and some other gear from the resort.
For more on Tuesday’s White House tête-à-tête and upcoming trade talks, read GZERO’s interview below with former Canadian Progressive Conservative leader and Quebec Premier the Hon. Jean Charest.Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on May 8, 2025.
78 million: The 78 million Catholics living in the US and Canada finally have one of their own at the head of the church. After two days of deliberations, the Vatican conclave on Thursday named Robert Francis Prevost as pope, the first American ever to hold the job. Pope Leo XIV, as he will be known, is seen as a middle-of-the-road choice by comparison with his reform-minded predecessor, Pope Francis. But his strong, recent criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policy sets up immediate tension between the Vatican and the White House.
29%: Canada’s hockey success is America’s loss, if TV ratings are anything to go by. Canada has five teams in the National Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 2017, but US audiences don’t seem interested. Playoff viewership on ABC/ESPN dropped 29% from last year, and the corresponding ratings for TNT/TBS fell 16%. No team from Canada has won the Stanley Cup since 1993. If it happens, a lot of Americans might miss it entirely.
895: Speaking of hockey, US President Donald Trump appears to think that the Washington Capitals’ star player Alexander Ovechkin is Canadian. “You happen to have a very, very good hockey player right here on the Capitals,” Trump said during his meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. “Just broke the record, and he’s a great guy.” Ovechkin, who just broke the record for all-time goals in the NHL with his 895th gino last month, is Russian. At least the US president knows where The Great One is from.
72 hours: Wildfires northeast of Edmonton have caused two county offices to issue states of local emergency, with Thorhild County ordering the residents of rural Boyle to evacuate their homes for 72 hours. But the effects may not be confined to Alberta: two years ago, Canadian wildfire smoke and pollution turned blue skies orange across North America.
1,383: The number of confirmed or probable measles cases in Ontario hit 1,383 on Tuesday, with another 265 cases in Alberta, and 40 more in Quebec. Canada’s total cases now exceed those in the United States, which stand at 935. On a per-capita basis, Ontario’s outbreak is 21 times larger than America’s. Experts blame the measles spread on falling vaccination rates – a study last year found that immunization rates among Canadian children in five provinces fell seven percentage points between 2019 and 2023.
2,894: Coffee shop owner Cory Bowman, half-brother of Vice President JD Vance, advanced to the general election for Cincinnati mayor, despite receiving just 2,894 votes (13%) in the all-party primary. Incumbent Mayor Aftab Pureval, a Democrat, dominated the primary election, winning 18,505 votes. The general election will take place in November.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on April 3, 2025.
Waltz out of step. Though the former congressman wasn’t the one who shared war plans on the chat – US Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth holds that honor – he ultimately took responsibility. President Donald Trump initially seemed willing to give Waltz a second chance, but it turned out that the national security adviser had created several other Signal chats to discuss foreign policy.
The original Signal faux-pas also raised questions over the exact nature of Waltz’s relationship with The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Neither Waltz nor Goldberg would comment on it.
History repeats itself. Trump fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn just 22 days into his first term. The president reportedly regretted this decision, so was reluctant to remove Waltz this time, and instead landed on a reshuffle.
Hegseth gets away with it – for now. The former Fox News host seems to have escaped punishment, even though it emerged that he also shared war plans with his wife, brother, and lawyer in a separate Signal chat. A former Pentagon spokesperson also said the Department of Defense has been in “total chaos” under his leadership. Trump has thus far backed Hegseth, although he hedged on whether he had full confidence in him during an ABC News interview that aired on Tuesday.
A full plate for Rubio. The former Florida senator entered the administration as the secretary of state, but he now counts USAID administrator and the acting National Security role in his portfolio. Whether he lasts in this trio of roles for long is another matter — the Miami native has long had presidential ambitions, which he could pursue in 2028.