CALGARY — The escalating trade war between Canada and the United States is among the worst in both nations’ histories, with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s foreign policy contributing to Ottawa’s weakened negotiating position, according to Stockwell Day.Day, who served as federal international trade minister in Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government from 2008 to 2010, told the Western Standard that the Liberal government’s current foreign policy agenda has created a great deal of friction with the Trump administration.“There's a lack of recognition on the part of the Prime Minister that so many of our broader macro policies almost guarantee that we're gonna have a difficult time getting a good arrangement on a free trade deal with the US,” Day said.He pointed to Carney’s efforts to strengthen Canada’s relationships with China and the European Union, as well as disagreements with Washington over continental defence, including Trump’s proposed missile defence system known as the Golden Dome, Israel, Iran and Canada’s ongoing relationship with China.“The Prime Minister’s very clear and stated goal is to push us closer into the arms of China and to have us also align more closely with the EU,” Day said, adding that one of the most important concerns the US has with regard to international and domestic security — China — is being flouted by the Liberals.Day argued that those disagreements make it more difficult for Canada to secure favourable treatment in trade negotiations..EXCLUSIVE: Stockwell Day warns independence split among conservatives would be ‘best news’ for Alberta NDP.“Carney writes that it is his goal to, as he says, help establish the new world order,” Day said.“Which is [to say] diminish American hegemony in the world... A lot of people don’t realize that, when negotiating a trade deal, a lot of that depends on chemistry.”Despite the ongoing situation, Day praised Canada’s current crop of negotiators, describing them as non-partisan and saying he was “very confident” going into trade talks with Canadian officials. However, he said political decisions made before the talks left officials like Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc with a difficult juggling act.“We went into those talks in a diminished position even before we started,” Day said, adding that he agreed with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s call for Carney to recall Parliament and discuss the details of the collapsed trade deal as a show of transparency from the government.“Everything that the Prime Minister said in the news conference on Saturday needs to be very seriously looked at because the US side is saying, ‘No, we didn't say this, we didn't say that,’ so that needs to be out there,” he said.“We're in a very weak position, and we're scrambling. Canadians at least should know all the facts and the full scope of our broader macro policy issues.”Asked about the Liberals recently announcing dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on $27.6 billion worth of US goods — which would take effect on September 8 — Day said he has consistently opposed tariffs imposed by either country.He also criticized Carney’s plan to spend billions supporting workers and businesses affected by the trade dispute, arguing that financing the measures with borrowed money would fuel inflation..Trump says it is time to ‘teach Canada’ a lesson as trade war escalates.“Every time a politician is announcing more spending with borrowed dollars, it makes it harder for us as citizens to buy groceries, and people have to really understand that connection,” Day said, adding that Canada’s economic position leaves the country poorly equipped for a prolonged conflict.He cited rising personal bankruptcies, weak economic growth and continued deficit spending.In recent years, international comparisons have placed Canada near the bottom of the world’s 50 largest economies for real GDP per capita growth.A December 2025 Visual Capitalist analysis ranked Canada 46th out of 50, while an earlier Financial Times analysis found Canada had recorded the weakest per-capita growth among developed economies in the top 50 since 2020.Day thinks that Canadians should “have their eyes wide open” to the current economic situation the country finds itself in rather than “just looking through the lens and the prism of CBC.”“CBC philosophically, of course, is delighted with a diminished US position in the world,” he said.“We should be fully informed, fully aware that we are headed into ongoing, long-term economic stagnation if we continue on this path.”Looking ahead, Day predicts Trump may eventually retreat from some of his harshest stances, saying the president has a history of opening negotiations from an extreme position before softening and accepting limited concessions.“He likes to come in with a bazooka, and then if you only wind up getting hit with a .22, you feel like you’ve come away doing well,” Day said.“If I'm looking at history and [Trump’s] pattern of negotiations, I think there might be some pullback from the harshness of what's on the table now. But I'm concerned with [the Canadian government] pushing closer to China."
