Mark Carney’s claims about the Gordie Howe Bridge deal don’t match the facts...

Carney says the U.S. won’t receive much money until the bridge’s $6-billion-plus debt is paid down, but media reports say otherwise.

It’s not unusual for two different politicians to have different views of the same event or deal. It seems Mark Carney’s framing of the Gordie Howe Bridge deal is the one detached from reality.

Despite Carney claiming the Americans wouldn’t be getting much until the more than $6 billion debt was paid off, reporting by Bloomberg and The Globe and Mail would say otherwise.

Let’s back up, though, and remember that this bridge should have been open already, but Donald Trump decided a shakedown was in order.

Back in February, Trump went on a rant about the bridge and other grievances he has with Canada, from dairy to the booze ban in Ontario. Specifically, though, his Truth Social post targeted the Gordie Howe Bridge.

“As everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades. Now, things are turning around for the U.S.A., and FAST! But imagine, Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and the United States side and, of course, built it with virtually no U.S. content,” Trump wrote.

He went on to demand a better deal.

Trump’s bridge complaint was never about the facts…

Now, let’s be clear: Canada built the bridge, Canada paid for the bridge, but the construction used Canadian and American content—including steel—to build the bridge. It was also built by both American and Canadian workers, so Trump is not being truthful with his claims.

He was able to get a better deal, though, by refusing to issue the permit that would allow the bridge to open. Talks went on for weeks in secret and then, in the early hours of July 11, he announced a deal had been struck.

“I was able to cut a MUCH BETTER DEAL for America, and by so doing, will be allowing the new and spectacular Gordie Howe International Bridge, spanning Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, to open on July 27th, as scheduled,” Trump wrote.

Now, the deal wasn’t released publicly, so we don’t know the details.

Carney’s version of the deal sounds different…

Initially, officials were describing a 50-50 split, then came a clarification that it was a 50-50 split of profits, not revenues. Then, last weekend in Calgary, Carney tried to make the claim that the Americans won’t be getting much at all for some time.

“We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge, and then what’s left over, there’s a split of that for 15 years,” Carney told CTV Calgary.

“There’s not going to be a lot of net to split,” he added.

That makes it sound closer to the original deal: Canada keeps most of the revenue until the bridge is paid off, and then there is a 50-50 split going forward.

The way Carney described things, it seemed like Trump got some minor changes. There would be an economic development fund that money would be paid into, but in reality there wouldn’t be much to share with the Americans.

Then came Bloomberg’s reporting on Friday.

The reporting tells a different story…

Josh Wingrove is a Canadian journalist—and quite a good one—who used to work on Parliament Hill and now covers the White House for Bloomberg. He was posting about this early.

“New: Bloomberg viewed a copy of the Trump-Carney deal to open a major new bridge. It’s a 15-year side pact to share the equivalent of net profits, after operational costs but not interest. The underlying Canada-Michigan deal (which does factor in debt repayment) is unchanged.”

Later in the day, The Globe and Mail was able to confirm what Bloomberg had reported.

“A 15-year side deal struck by Canada and the United States on the new Gordie Howe International Bridge will see Ottawa cut Washington cheques that amount to half the toll revenues minus operating costs for the span connecting Windsor and Detroit,” opens the story from Steven Chase.

Both news outlets say that there is no provision requiring the debt for the bridge to be paid off before the Americans are sent their cut.

More from The Globe:

“The official said net revenues are all revenues collected with respect to the bridge minus all incurred operating costs of the bridge. There is no subtraction for debt servicing, they acknowledged when asked.

The official called the new side deal with the U.S. a parallel agreement to the 2012 Canada-Michigan agreement and said it stipulates that an amount equal to half the net revenues from the bridge will be paid into a U.S.-run economic development fund.”

I get that Carney may not have had much of a choice when it came to signing a new deal to get the bridge open. We paid for it to be built. It benefits our economy for it to open. Trump doesn’t want it to open, so he doesn’t care.

So maybe Carney had to strike a deal to get the bridge open.

At least be honest about what the deal is and what the deal isn’t. At this point, it doesn’t look like Carney is being honest at all.

Let’s see what the new spin is over the coming days.