Mark Carney and Donald Trump have not spoken since trade talks were cancelled last week, the prime minister confirmed Monday, but he said he'd always make himself available to talk with the U.S. president — as he would for any other world leader.
It’s a sign that not only are trade negotiations between Canada and the United States on ice, but the much-hyped personal rapport between the two leaders is in the deep freeze as well.
Carney visited the Oval Office just a few weeks ago, and there was friendly banter and the expectation that a deal on sectoral trade issues was at hand. But all of that came crashing down last Thursday with Trump's cancellation of negotiations over an Ontario government-sponsored, anti-tariff television ad, which uses excerpts from a four-decade-old address by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
Canada was making important progress at the negotiating table before the ad began running in the United States, the prime minister said.
But Carney declined to criticize Ontario Premier Doug Ford, sayi
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