Carney says Trump told him Canada dropping retaliatory tariffs would kickstart trade talks

Elbows up — but only sometimes

It’s time to ‘stickhandle’ with U.S., Carney says, after dropping the gloves early in trade war

Asked if Canada is now ‘elbows down,’ Prime Minister Mark Carney says the country has ‘the lowest tariff rate on average’ after showing it’s willing to fight. But he says this is a ‘big game’ that has now moved to a different stage.

The prime minister is standing by the “elbows up” posture he repeated regularly during the recent election campaign, but he’s now saying there’s a time in every “big game” when strategies change.

“I have played some hockey over the years,” Mark Carney said.

There’s “a time in the game that you drop the gloves in the first period and you send a message — and we have done that. Pretty uniquely in the world,” he said, pointing to Canada’s choice to hit back with counter-tariffs — an action most U.S.-targeted countries avoided.

“But there’s also a time in a game where you want the puck, you want to stickhandle, you want to pass, you want to put the puck in the net … we’re at that time in the game and that’s where the engagement is.”

Carney made these remarks after a reporter said the prime minister’s critics would suggest Canada is effectively taking an “elbows down” approach to the trade war.