Carney and Poilievre spar over Canada's leverage...

Plus, Carney says Trump doesn't like flattery after flattering him for a year.

A week ago, I wrote that Mark Carney needed to use Canada’s leverage to secure a trade deal with the United States. In my view, that meant putting everything on the table – all the things we have and they want and all of our trade irritants with the Americans.

This wasn’t a call to surrender or give up anything ahead of time; it was the opposite. Though the Elbows Up crowd definitely believed I wanted to surrender to Trump and unleashed their profanity laced emails calling me a Maple MAGAt at every turn.

To me it seems smart to say, “Look, you want energy security and critical minerals and we have both, but we need something in return.”

That’s leverage.

So, a screaming headline stating that Carney won’t use leverage was disappointing to see.

“Canada won’t use energy, critical minerals as ‘leverage’ in trade talks: PM” read the headline from Canadian Press.

I’d like to see the full transcript of the interview, CP’s first since Carney entered political life, they pointed out. Because I’m not sure that what they are characterizing as leverage and that Carney is are the same.

I’ve read all the versions of this CP story as they have updated it and things aren’t clear.

“I reject that characterization of it’s leverage. It’s looking at, is it in our mutual interest to trade more? Where is it? And if it’s not there, we have other options,” Carney said Friday in his first interview with The Canadian Press since entering federal politics.

“Should we be further integrating our energy markets with the United States at a time they view that as, quote, ‘leverage’?”

I’d argue that we need to diversify – thus a new West Coast pipeline to sell to Asia – and ensure that any expansion of shipments to the United States is part of our talks about lifting tariffs.

Carney says Trump doesn’t like flattery...

One of the frustrating things about Mark Carney’s dealings with Donald Trump is that he talks tough when Trump isn’t around but is slavish in his praise when near the American president. Now, Carney, a man who has flattered Trump more than most, is telling us in that same CP interview that Trump doesn’t like flattery.

“There is, I think, a misconception, maybe, or a view a number of people have formed that the best way is to cloak things in different language and flattering language,” Carney said.

“He’s a tough negotiator. He has very strong views about what he wants, and so what’s important is to find ways to communicate what Canada wants, what Canada expects, that’s respectful but also direct. So I would say in my interactions with him, that’s proven right.”

In Carney’s two visits to the White House in May and October of last year and Trump’s visit to Kananaskis, Alberta for the G7 showed how far Carney was willing to go to praise Trump. Compare that to his regular potshots at Trump in Ottawa, in Brussels, during his speech in Davos before the World Economic Forum.

I’d believe Carney if it weren’t for his own actions.

Pierre Poilievre wants to know what our leverage is...

On Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference that seems to have delivered multiple stories and headlines in all directions. One story, from CP, was about Poilievre asking, like I have, what Carney will use as leverage in his talks with the Americans.

“If energy and minerals are not going to be leveraged for Canada in these negotiations, what leverage does Mr. Carney claim to have?” Poilievre said while speaking with reporters at a press conference in Toronto.

“He can’t tell us what leverage we have, what demands he’s making, what tariffs he wants to get removed, and when and if he will even get a deal at all.”

It’s a valid question.

Carney likes to talk tough, at least when Trump isn’t around and is weak when he is. Saying you will use oil, gas, or critical minerals as leverage doesn’t have to be an aggressive step.

This is simple negotiation tactics, the fact that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer warned us not to use these as leverage doesn’t mean we need to listen. Of course, these commodities are leverage, of course they are things the United States wants.

You can see Poilievre’s comments at about the 10 minute mark of the video below.

Also, he pointed out the size of Canada’s debt under the Liberals and defended the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto.

A former Liberal and a former Conservative speak up...

It was fascinating to see Martha Hall Findlay, the former Liberal MP and leadership contender, speaking up in an op-ed in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s stuffiest newspaper, to say stop pushing ahead with carbon capture and storage.

This is an issue that MHF, a woman I have immense respect for, has championed for years.

I devoted several years of my life to helping create the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero Alliance and its carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) project. I care deeply about climate change and Canada “doing its part,” as do my former colleagues at the Pathways companies. That has not changed.

But as hard as it is, I am now recommending that Canada postpone the Pathways CCUS project. This is not the time. The world – and the facts – have changed dramatically.

Yes, things have changed and while Carney has changed and played at the margins, like eliminating the consumer carbon tax – or pushing it to zero – he remains committed to net zero. Having MHF come out in favour of getting rid of carbon capture and storage is big news.

Last year, I had Martha Hall Findlay on the Full Comment Podcast to talk about supply management - she’s not a fan at all.

Meanwhile, over at the Toronto Star, one of Stephen Harper’s former Director of Communications, Andrew MacDougall is writing about the Carney Spring Economic Statement, you know the one that so many in the national media have been telling you is so much like a Harper document.

Is this it?

Is this all a galaxy brain in control of a government within sight of 50 per cent in the polls can offer in the midst of a crisis? A bit of a nip here, a bit of a tuck there, but all-in-all keeping Canada on the same rotten economic trajectory?

Welcome to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “spring economic update”: continuity of Justin Trudeau, a bit of a fiddling while Canada burns.

This isn’t what Canadians were promised. They didn’t ask Chrystia Freeland to knife Trudeau in the back for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to deliver a spring statement for Carney that Freeland could have written for Trudeau. They voted for the galaxy brain who had been around all of the big decision-making tables for decades, a man with a deep understanding of the dismal science, a man who would keep the Canadian economy safe from the big bad baby down south.

Yeah, that’s all there is, same boss just like the old boss, just with better imaging for the times we’re in.