Canada-U.S. trade war turns into a war of words; the Trump administration’s ‘really weird’ meme attacks; and more
- Prime Minister Mark Carney urged the U.S. to "stop doing memes" and adopt a serious approach amid escalating trade tensions between Canada and the U.S.
- A Canadian political science professor criticized the Trump administration's unrestrained and defamatory rhetoric towards opponents, highlighting a shift in political discourse.
- A Fraser Institute study revealed that since 2014, Canada's economic performance has lagged behind the U.S. in key areas such as living standards, incomes, employment, investment, and productivity.
- Following recent Liberal Party election victories, commentators suggest the party is strengthening its national identity by responding assertively to U.S. President Donald Trump’s provocations, with Mark Carney playing a central role.
It’s Tuesday, September 1. Here are the top stories we’re following today.
After days of harsh comments and insults towards Canada from multiple U.S. government officials, Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday said Americans should “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough, and start being serious.” Carney said the comments are “not constructive,” as the two countries are embroiled in a trade war.
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“In the second Trump administration, there’s been no real effort to restrain rhetoric, to not post really defamatory and tasteless videos, to go after opponents with the full power of the American state,” a political science professor in Canada says. “And to do all sorts of things that would have been hard to fathom not that long ago.”
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The Fraser Institute study compared economic outcomes in the two countries by looking at living standards, incomes, employment, investment, and productivity. It found that in every category, Canada has fallen further behind. The study suggests that Canada’s trailing economic performance didn’t begin until 2014. Before then, Canada largely kept pace with, or in some cases exceeded, the U.S. across multiple measures, it said.
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After the Liberals swept three federal byelections on Monday, Kheiriddin writes that with its elbows-up response to U.S. President Donald Trump, “the Liberal Party is steadily identifying its brand with the nation itself.” She says it’s “a page from a very old Liberal playbook” and Mark Carney is “now pulling off the 21st-century version, with Trump supplying copious amounts of glue.”
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The prime minister said more than a hundred words and none of them were “yes.”
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