Good deal or no deal? Carney’s crucible

“NO deal is better than a bad deal.” This is the sentence that will define Prime Minister Mark Carney’s time in government.

Uttered last year to explain away the delays in negotiating a new trade arrangement with the United States amidst the high expectations of Carney’s election, it is now the benchmark against which he and his Liberal government are going to be measured. This time next week, we will know if he meant it. With all the consequences that ensue.

By then, we will have reached President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 deadline threat to impose new 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian exports. This is not going down well with Canadians. Chief negotiator Janice Charette is reported as having called that a “cliff” in sessions with her U.S. counterparts. That means negotiations fall off and fail.

In short, Carney and Charette need to be clear and firm that Canada will walk away from talks rather than accept a sub-standard deal that subjugates us to a diminished economic relationship simply to please Trump. In turn, that would mean Canadians accepting sustained economic pain and discomfort inflicted upon us by America as the price for not signing on to a “bad deal.”

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