Carney says Canada is moving beyond US with a new Europe alliance

Toronto,UPDATED: Sep 19, 2026 02:00 IST

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday that Canada was moving quickly beyond its long reliance on the United States, after a week in which he pushed for closer ties with Europe and embraced the idea of Canada becoming the European Union's first associate member.

Speaking to Liberal lawmakers in Ottawa ahead of a new session of Parliament, in his first public remarks since returning from Europe on Thursday night, Carney said Canada and Europe had "launched a process for a new alliance". He also called the latest US tariffs a "miscalculation" and said suspending trade talks with Washington last month had been the right decision.

"Amidst this global rupture, we must move forward," Carney said.

A day after telling the European Parliament that Canada and Europe needed greater resilience so that no country could control their markets, impair their sovereignty or dictate their choices, Carney said on Friday that Canada's fiscal position was another source of strength.

Carney, a former head of the central banks of Canada and England, also appeared to contrast Canada with the United States as US government borrowing costs remain significantly higher than Canada's.

"We're now seeing financial markets starting to change the pricing ... to separate the strong from the weak," Carney said. "We are the strong. We are Canada strong."

The remarks capped a seven-day stretch in which Carney hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, brought together major global investors in Toronto, met new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Liverpool and addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In Strasbourg, Carney backed a shift towards Europe and called for a much deeper alliance covering energy, critical minerals, defence, artificial intelligence, research and other strategic sectors, saying Canada could no longer afford to depend on a single country.

The next major step in that effort will be the Canada-EU summit in Montreal on October 29 and 30.

US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, repeatedly spoken about making Canada the 51st state and threatened more economic measures. Trade negotiations collapsed last month and remain suspended.

Carney also highlighted a business tax break announced at this week's Canada Investment Summit, which is expected to bring down the effective tax rate on new investment to 6.4 per cent, less than half the US rate.

"We didn't need a big beautiful bill. We needed a targeted initiative," Carney said, drawing laughter with what appeared to be a swipe at Trump's signature tax-and-spending law.

Carney also appeared to mimic Trump while saying a major clean energy project would produce the equivalent of "18 Hoover Dams", repeating the phrase as he twice used the US president's familiar accordion-like hand gesture.

The government announced nearly half a trillion dollars in investment commitments around the summit.

"In the last seven days, we have stood shoulder to shoulder with an ally, we've catalysed record investment into our country, we've deepened our ties with Europe," Carney said. Summing up the week, he added: "It's a lot, but that was the warm-up."

With PTI Inputs

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