🙄 Trump Says a Canada Trade Deal Is Near
Nov 9, 2026
In the days leading up to the November 3 American midterm elections, Donald Trump began sounding unusually optimistic about trade negotiations with Canada. The U.S. president suggested that an agreement was close, and Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that conversations between the two governments had become more productive. After the collapse of talks in August, the renewed dialogue was a welcome development, but it was not evidence that a deal had been completed.
The timing inevitably attracted attention. Trump was facing a difficult election in a number of states where Canadian trade matters to manufacturers, agricultural producers and consumers. Those political considerations made the sudden improvement in tone notable, although they do not establish why the administration changed its negotiating position.
Carney, meanwhile, was attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. Speaking there on November 3, he acknowledged progress but stressed that negotiators had not finished their work. He indicated that Washington had stepped back from some demands touching Canada’s language protections, cultural policies and freedom to pursue trade agreements with other countries.
Our Take
This reads like nothing but a desperate attempt to assuage the American electorate, which was getting ready to head to the polls. Carney may have had a somewhat productive talk with Trump the previous week, but was in Antigua and Barbuda at the time that Trump was spewing his nonsense. Moreover, Carney also recently indicated that he'd be willing to wait the entire Trump administration out, if that's what it took to get a fair deal for Canada. At this rate, it's looking more and more like this may be necessary.
No doubt few people in Canada were fooled by this transparent attempt to manipulate the American public, but if you did in fact believe Trump, it's likely that he's got some swampland in Florida that he'd be willing to sell to you (literally).
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