OTTAWA — Canadian officials haven’t ruled out the possibility of a snap trade deal with the United States ahead of next month’s midterm elections, according to sources with direct knowledge of the talks. Though they cautioned that the hope remains faint.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman briefed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations on the state of play in a Thursday morning meeting, according to four sources with knowledge of the call.
It marked the group’s first meeting since Sept. 4.
The briefing comes a day after Carney said he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump “for quite some time” on Wednesday morning. Carney said the two leaders discussed trade, the Iran war and the Middle East, though his office issued no formal readout of the call.
One source with direct knowledge of the Thursday advisory committee call and a separate one involving U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told CTV News the trade discussions were “moving,” though cautioned nothing may come of that.
At Thursday’s meeting with the advisory committee, the four sources said Wiseman told the 24-member group that the public opinion tide in the U.S. was finally turning in Canada’s favour and that the federal government is seeing support grow across the U.S.
That message was echoed separately by an industry source who told CTV News that the tariff dispute with Canada is resonating with voters in the U.S. midterms and the issue is coming up in races even outside of border states.
Separately, LeBlanc’s message to the advisory committee was that anything could happen before the midterms, the sources said. They added that the minister referenced the pressure that the White House is under as successive polls show an increasingly hostile electorate and eroding prospects for the governing Republicans.
Two of the sources said LeBlanc told the advisory committee, “anything is possible.” That sentiment was echoed by a Canadian official who spoke with CTV News this week.
CTV News is not identifying the sources or official because they were not authorized to disclose details of confidential discussions.
The sources were careful not to overstate the message from the federal officials, adding that their general takeaway was that a deal is in no way guaranteed or even expected, but is not entirely impossible.
LeBlanc’s office declined to makes comments to CTV News on Thursday.
Canada’s Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette was also at the advisory committee meeting, according to a readout sent by the government Thursday. However, the statement makes no mention of the potential opening for a deal with the White House.
“Committee members discussed the ongoing impact of U.S. tariffs on their regions, businesses or sectors and shared their insights,” the readout said.
Charette later spoke at a Thursday afternoon panel at the Toronto Global Forum. She was careful in her characterization of the current state of talks, saying “pens are down and the doors are open,” while adding that she and LeBlanc have “regular and frequent conversations” with their respective counterparts.
“We’re trying to stabilize the relationship because we are not in a position where it is stable right now,” she said.
Charette cautioned the Toronto business crowd that Canada does not expect to go back to tariff-free trade with the U.S.
“We had tariff-free trade; that was the best. I don’t think we’re going back,” she said.
Talks between the two countries abruptly ended in August when Carney called Canadian negotiators back, which resulted in the White House imposing a fresh round of tariffs.
At the time, the prime minister said the Trump administration had asked for too much and offered too little in its negotiations to avert the August tariffs from the White House.
“You’re at war when you get attacked,” Carney said on Aug. 22. “We got attacked.”
Since then, the Americans have been trying to shift the blame for the trade dispute between the two countries. On Tuesday U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told an industry event in Ottawa that from his perspective “we’re not in a trade war.”
“We don’t view the relationship as ruptured, and I know that the Canadians look at it differently,” he added.
With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha and Mike Le Couteur
