Carney 'passed the test' in meeting with Trump, Cornell professor says

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OTTAWA — He made a better impression than his predecessor, but there’s still a long way to go.

This week’s first meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump was a political test for Canada’s newly-minted leader — not only of his political chops, but how he can handle the erratic and often contradictory American president.

“I would say he passed the test,” said Jon Parmenter, associate history professor at Cornell University in upstate New York.

“I think he did a good job trying to steer the conversation back to some fairly concrete terms that Canadians see the relationship resting on.”

The highly anticipated — and highly watched — meeting between the two leaders touched on a wide range of topics and was described by Carney as “constructive.”

While Parmenter said the meeting didn’t produce many immediate tangible outcomes, he noted that Trump got along with Carney far better than he did with his predecessor.

“It seems like the president has a greater deal of respect for Prime Minister Carney than he did with Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau,” he said.

“Perhaps that can be the basis to restoring a little of the sanity and stability that has long characterized this relationship, and has been lacking for the last three to four months.”

Trump himself agreed with that notion.

“We get along very well, we had a great meeting today,” Trump told reporters after their Tuesday sit-down.

“I think the relationship’s going to be very strong.”

While Trump continued his talk of annexing Canada, he stopped short of calling Carney “governor” — a taunt he frequently used against Trudeau.

Carney said he asked Trump to stop referring to Canada as the 51st state, however he lost his temper at a reporter who asked him to elaborate.

“Exactly what you just said,” Carney snapped when asked to elaborate on his one-word “yes” response.

“Look, I gave you an answer. Do you have a follow-up? He’s the president, he’s his own person.”

Relations between presidents and prime ministers have always had their peaks and valleys, Parmenter said — ranging from Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney sharing a stage to sing When Irish Eyes are Smiling to Lyndon B. Johnson famously — and perhaps apocryphally — grabbing Lester Pearson by the lapels at Camp David and shouting, “Don’t you come into my house and piss on my rug,” over Canada’s opposition to the Vietnam War.

“It sets the tone for the people who are actually doing the hard work of the actual negotiations,” Parmenter said.

“When you see leaders acting in harmonious ways, or acting respectfully to one another, it just sets a tone. The Reagan/Mulroney buddy-buddy act is nowhere near coming back anytime soon.”

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As for the future of Canada-U.S. relations, Parmenter said Canada has little choice right now but to play ball and see where it takes them.

“Although this is going to be uncomfortable and arguably distasteful for Canadians, continuing to negotiate with the United States is really sort of one of their best options,” he said.

“A productive relationship with the U.S. really isn’t something that Canadians can afford to completely ignore, and I think would be well advised to stick with it and hope this episode and its current trends and patterns is relatively short lived.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume