After Liberal Leader Mark Carney flip-flopped within minutes about claims he made of the “constructive” nature of a pre-election phone call he had with U.S. President Donald Trump, new reports suggest his narrative about the call contradicts what really happened.
According to the National Post, an unnamed “senior source” alleged that Carney “flagged” for Trump that he would have to talk tough about the president and America during the election.
The Prime Minister’s Office denied that he gave Trump such a warning, however.
The opinion piece also claimed that the source said that Carney told Trump that he was a “transformative” president that he’d “like to work with,” though the author acknowledged that the alleged flattery could have been part of a strategy for more favourable negotiations.
The piece argues that if Carney tipped Trump off to ignore his claims on the election trail it would be a departure from the essence of Carney’s campaign of taking a hard stance against the U.S. president.
This comes after Carney contradicted his previous comments on the March 28 call. At the time, he told reporters that Trump respects Canada’s sovereignty now that Carney is at the helm of the Liberal government.
The pre-election phone call came under renewed scrutiny after Trump threatened to increase the already 25 per cent tariff on Canada’s auto industry and said Canada would “cease to exist” without the U.S. on Wednesday.
When asked about the call again on Thursday, Carney at first talked around the question of whether Trump brought up Canada as the 51st state, stating that they agreed to negotiate as two sovereign nations after the Canadian election.
After facing pressure from multiple reporters from separate outlets, Carney flip-flopped and admitted that Trump did mention his desire to annex Canada again, and said that he “did” say that already, despite not answering clearly.
He shrugged off the statements, however, saying that Trump “brings up annexing Canada “up all the time and that he “advised” the president that Canada would retaliate against any tariffs imposed on it.
The National Post’s “senior source” said that the perception created by the Canadian read-out on the call was “at odds” with the truth of what happened, calling into doubt Carney’s credibility and willingness to take on Trump.