Prime Minister Mark Carney will sit down with U.S. President Donald Trump for a one-on-one meeting first thing Monday morning before overseeing the official start of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Alberta.
Carney arrived in Calgary on Sunday afternoon for the high-stakes gathering, where he was greeted at the airport by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Earlier in the day, Carney met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Ottawa and signed new economic and defence agreements with the U.K., previewing the international outreach Canada will likely pursue over the next couple of days.
Monday’s bilateral sit-down with Trump, which the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed will be at 9 a.m. local time, comes as Canada and the U.S. work toward a new agreement on trade and security but have yet to produce a deal.
All eyes will be on whether Carney and Trump, who have been speaking directly for several weeks of sometimes-informal talks, can make further progress.
In an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block, Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada U.S trade who has led negotiations with the Trump administration, said Canada’s ultimate goal is to get Trump’s punishing tariffs removed.
He said progress was not going fast enough, however, and warned further economic retaliation could come soon if a deal isn’t reached.
“Our hope was that we would have made more progress before the president arrives in Alberta for the G7. We haven’t hit that sweet spot,” he said.
“If we conclude in a short period of time that we’re not close to a deal, obviously, as we’ve said, the country will look at what might be further measures to retaliate against that doubling of the steel and aluminum tariffs.”
Canada is hosting G7 leaders in Kananaskis for the annual summit, with official discussions on global issues taking place Monday and Tuesday. The global economy and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are high on the agenda.
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Hundreds of protesters rallied in downtown Calgary on Sunday as leaders from around the world began arriving.
Trump was among the last to arrive on Sunday evening, after hosting a massive military parade in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
The other attendees will likely also be aiming to secure new deals and terms with Trump, who has upended the global economy with sweeping tariffs and threats of more to come.
Trump said “there could be” when asked if he expected any trade deals to be announced at the G7, but did not mention Canada or any other countries specifically.
“Look, we have our trade deals — all we have to do is send a letter (that says), ‘This is what you’re going to have to pay,” he told reporters outside the White House as he left for Calgary.
“But I think we’re going to have a few new trade deals, yeah.”
Brian Clow, who served in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office as his advisor on Canada-U.S. relations — including during Trump’s first term — told Global News that Carney should expect unpredictability.
“Donald Trump has clearly stated over and over, and his team has stated, that they like tariffs and they don’t want to remove them,” he said.
“The advice I would give to my former boss and to any leader, and to the new prime minister, is you’ve got to go in with a plan.”
U.K.'s Starmer meets with Carney in Ottawa
Carney spent the weekend with Starmer, who travelled to Ottawa for direct talks ahead of the G7 summit.
The meeting marked Carney’s first bilateral sit-down with a foreign leader in Canada since he became prime minister in March.
The fact it was with Starmer “makes sense,” the Canadian leader told reporters Sunday, given the historical ties between the two countries and Carney’s own British family roots and previous tenure as head of the Bank of England.
The two leaders had dinner Saturday at Carney’s official residence at Rideau Cottage, later taking in the NHL hockey game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers.
On Sunday, Carney and Starmer struck new Canada-U.K. partnerships on trade, science and technology, and security, according to a joint statement from their offices.
The agreements include a new working group on deepening trade ties — a sign of progress after negotiations on a new trade deal were paused early in 2024, leaving in place a temporary deal signed after Brexit.
Canada and Britain will also collaborate on applying artificial intelligence tools to national security by working with the Canadian AI company Cohere, which will “develop their commitment to building cutting-edge data centres in Canada,” the joint statement said.
The company — whose CEO Aidan Gomez met with Carney and Starmer on Sunday — said in its own statement it will work with the Canadian government in its efforts to make the public service more efficient and productive, while pursuing AI solutions in defence, security and research in the U.K.
Canada and the U.K. will also invest $5.7 million in funding over five years toward a joint “Common Good Cyber Fund” to combat digital transnational repression, as well as $14.8 million toward joint biomanufacturing research and development, the leaders announced Sunday.
Starmer told reporters Sunday that the two Commonwealth countries think and work alike, and that their longstanding and historic ties on economic and security matters are very much needed “in the here and now.”
“I’ve learned a lot from the prime minister over the years, I’m a great admirer of his, and the values that he’s bringing to bear to his government and internationally — particularly as we go to Kananaskis for the G7 — are those that we will be promoting,” said Carney.
Carney was set to meet one-on-one with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa late Sunday before travelling to Kananaskis.
Beyond Albanese and Ramaphosa, Carney has also invited the leaders of India, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and NATO to the summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend, meeting with G7 and invited leaders at Tuesday’s working breakfast focused on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Starmer said in Ottawa that the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran will be a “centrepiece” of the talks in Kananaskis in addition to already-announced topics of discussion.
Monday’s working sessions will focus on the global economy and security matters, according to the official G7 schedule, while Tuesday will also see a session on energy security.
Carney has said Canada’s priorities as chair of the annual summit include strengthening peace and security, improving joint responses to wildfires, fortifying critical mineral supply chains and bolstering the use of artificial intelligence to spur economic growth.
The G7 includes the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada, as well as the European Union.