CGTN Europe speaks to Radhika Desai, Professor at Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba.
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00:00Radhika Desai is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
00:05Good to see you, Radhika.
00:06Look, Mark Carney has warned of a dangerous time for the country
00:10and says he will stand up to Trump.
00:12What can we expect?
00:14Well, I think that on the one hand, of course,
00:18given the extent to which ordinary Canadians are incensed
00:22at what the United States is doing,
00:24Mr Carney must say what he just said,
00:27the clip that you just played at the end of where he was elected yesterday.
00:31At the same time, let me emphasize that Mark Carney,
00:34in contrast to his closest rival, Chrystia Freeland,
00:38had emphasized a much softer tone towards the Americans.
00:42He says, we have to negotiate.
00:44These are our very close trading partners.
00:46You have to understand what a lot of trouble the Canadian economy is in.
00:51The governor of the Bank of Canada,
00:53Tiff Macklem, whose predecessor, of course, was Mr. Mark Carney,
00:58has said that if these tariffs are sustained and continued,
01:02there will be a deep recession in Canada.
01:04Canada exports, most of Canada's exports go to the United States,
01:08so Canada is very vulnerable.
01:10The Canadian capitalist class is very deeply committed
01:15to the relationship that Canada has to the United States,
01:17so we will just have to see exactly how tough Mr. Carney can be.
01:22Of course, in his role as central banker,
01:24he dealt with a number of political and economic crises.
01:26You're saying the big challenge here is going to be potential recession at home,
01:30but can he reset the relationship between Canada and the United States?
01:36I think that it's not going to be up to him alone.
01:39I think it's going to be dictated also by the Trump administration,
01:43and I think that the Trump administration's tariff policies
01:46are really a lot of grandstanding for political purposes
01:51because the Trump administration or President Trump
01:54has essentially won office by telling Americans
01:57that the problem that they are suffering from is trade and China
02:02and America's trading partners and so on,
02:05instead of pointing to the disastrous economic policies being followed at home.
02:10So he must appear to be imposing tariffs.
02:13The reality, however, will be different
02:15based on exactly how much it hurts the United States,
02:18how much bargaining power it will give the Trump administration,
02:21and so the reality will be rather messy,
02:25and it will not be definitely under Mark Carney's control.
02:29What about then Canada and the rest of the world?
02:32One might think his background will mean a real focus on international solidarity.
02:37How do you see things playing out?
02:39Well, definitely the political discussion in Canada
02:44has very much been about diversifying Canada's trading links,
02:48naturally with Europe, but also, of course, with China and the rest of the world,
02:54and I think that this would, of course, be at any time a very good idea.
02:58Indeed, many sensible economists have been arguing this
03:02ever since Canada took the plunge in 1998,
03:05negotiating back then the US-Canada free trade deal,
03:09which was then followed by NAFTA and so on,
03:12pointing out that we should not put all our eggs in the US basket,
03:16but this advice has not been heeded until now.
03:21Now these voices are rising, but we'll just have to see exactly what is possible,
03:25particularly if the Canadian government and the Carney continues the extreme hostility
03:33of the Trudeau government towards China, towards Russia,
03:37and the rest of the world more generally.
03:40So I think we'll just have to see whether thinking in Canada changes.
03:45Radhika Desai, thank you very much.