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Hello everyone and welcome to my newsletter on all things Canada. My name is Rupa Subramanya—and I’m a reporter based in Ottawa for The Free Press. We’re going to tackle a lot this week, but first a check-in with our newly elected prime minister and his burgeoning relationship with the superpower to our south . . .
Understanding the Trump-Carney Bromance
Spring has finally arrived in Canada. It’s the season of love, flowers, the NHL playoffs . . . and apparently a blooming romance between Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Donald Trump.
When Carney arrived at the White House for his first visit earlier this month, the stage seemed set for a Volodymyr Zelensky-style Oval Office humiliation for Carney. (President Trump had just fired off another post on Truth Social slamming Canada as a freeloading country.)
Yet something else transpired. Trump gushed about his love for Canada and then claimed he was responsible for “one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics.”
He wasn’t talking about his own political resurrection, but rather that of Canada’s ruling Liberals, which just won an almost-unprecedented fourth term under Carney. In other words, the Republican president was taking credit for the Conservatives’ defeat.
So why does Trump have so much affection for Canada’s new prime minister, especially given the lack of bonhomie he had with Carney’s predecessor, “Governor” Justin Trudeau?