Canadians increasingly believe U.S. tariffs are here to stay despite repeated promises from Prime Minister Mark Carney that Ottawa can negotiate a better trade deal with Washington, according to newly released Privy Council research.Blacklock's Reporter says federal focus groups found little confidence the Liberal government would succeed in convincing the United States to eliminate tariffs on Canadian goods, with many participants saying the measures are now a permanent part of American economic policy.“Few thought that it was likely that an agreement could be achieved where all tariffs would be removed,” said the report prepared for the Privy Council Office.“For most, it was believed that tariffs represented a significant part of the U.S. government’s foreign economic policy and that regardless of what efforts were made by the Government of Canada, it was unlikely that these measures would be fully removed at any point in the foreseeable future.”The findings stand in contrast to repeated public assurances from Carney, who has spent more than a year promising Canadians he would secure a favourable agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump.“Trump claims Canada isn’t a real country,” Carney said during a March 23, 2025 speech. “He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen.”As recently as Oct. 8, Carney insisted negotiations with Washington were progressing.“We will get an even better deal,” he said at the time.“Our team is negotiating. This is not just words. We will get a deal.”.The Privy Council commissioned the focus groups through a $1.6 million contract with Toronto-based polling firm The Strategic Counsel. The report, titled Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views, is dated Jan. 27 but was only released publicly Monday.Researchers found Canadians sharply divided over whether the federal government was handling the trade dispute effectively.“Asked how they would rate the Government of Canada’s management of the trade situation with the U.S. and whether they believed it was on the right track or wrong track when it came to this issue, a roughly equal number thought that the federal government was headed in the right direction on this front compared to those who felt otherwise,” the report stated.Participants who believed Ottawa was failing pointed to what they described as a lack of progress in tariff negotiations.“A number cited what they perceived as a lack of progress when it came to its negotiations with the United States to have these tariffs reduced or removed,” the report said.“Among these participants it was felt that, given the significant economic challenges they believed these tariffs posed for Canadian businesses and workers, more needed to be done by federal officials to find a way to work with the U.S. and reach an agreement that would eventually see these tariffs be rescinded.”Other participants said the constantly changing nature of the dispute made it difficult to judge whether the government’s response had been effective.“Due to the frequently changing nature of this situation, it had been difficult for them to determine whether or not the federal government had been effective in its response,” the report concluded.
