Politics Insider: Canada and U.S. in talks about a prospective deal for relief on tariffs

Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let’s look at what happened this week.

Canada and the U.S. are discussing a prospective deal in which Ottawa would agree to a long list of Washington’s trade demands in exchange for some relief on sectoral tariffs.

Adrian Morrow and Mark Rendell report that, according to three industry sources with knowledge of the negotiations, the two sides have discussed in-depth proposals and traded written bargaining positions – but an agreement has not yet been reached.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the talks.

At the centre of the proposals is a swap. Canada would concede on a range of trade issues that the U.S. considers the biggest bilateral trade irritants, including the removal of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products such as autos, the return of American alcohol to shelves, removing provincial procurement restrictions, and agreeing to Washington’s interpretation of how dairy quotas should be allocated. One of the sources said the U.S. has a priority list of around 10 items it wants addressed.

In return, the U.S. would lower sectoral levies on steel and aluminum, with Ottawa also pushing for relief on autos and forest products. Canada is hoping to avoid U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest round of threatened tariffs, scheduled to take effect in less than two weeks time.

In other news, former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland says Beijing’s new law claiming the right to prosecute people and organizations anywhere in the world for undermining its “ethnic unity” reminds her of the rationale Vladimir Putin used to justify his 2022 military assault on Ukraine.

Steven Chase reports that while speaking this week at a security forum in Taiwan, Freeland called on democratic countries to unequivocally push back against China’s ethnic unity law.

Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, lives under threat of invasion from China. Beijing claims Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to annex the island and its 23 million people in the name of “reunification.” Taiwanese officials have said sovereignty and security provisions in the new Chinese law hand Beijing an additional legal pretext for targeting people in Taiwan it regards as separatists.

Freeland delivered a keynote address this week to the Ketagalan Forum, hosted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a local think tank.

What else is going on

Canada adds 75,000 jobs in July, unemployment rate hits two-year low: Statistics Canada says Canada added a surprising 75,000 jobs in July, blowing past expectations of economists in a Reuters poll, which predicted a modest 15,000-job gain. Those jobs were split between full- and part-time work.

Chinese dissident plans to keep speaking out in Canada against “CCP persecution”: Referring to China’s Communist Party, Zhang Xinyan, who arrived in Vancouver this week, said: “My story is an example of CCP persecution – of transnational repression.” She added, “If we don’t draw international attention to it, it’s saying that the CCP can do whatever it wants.”

Conservative MP Larry Brock will resign at end of summer: The representative for the Ontario riding of Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations was first elected in 2021. He has accepted a role with the Brantford Crown Attorney’s office.

Liberal Party selects lawyer as new national director: Jessica Cardill is a well-known fixture in the party and returning to the organization after a brief stint in the private sector.

Mike Morrice, Nira Dookeran running for federal Green Party leadership: Morrice, a former Kitchener-Centre MP, as well as Dookeran, an organizer who has previously run for both the federal and Ontario Greens, have been approved for the race that concludes on Nov. 14.

Fundraising gap between Conservatives and Liberals shrinks in second quarter of year: Financial data published by Elections Canada showed Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives brought in just over $5-million compared with the Liberals’ $4.36-million in April, May and June.

On our radar

Prime Minister’s Week: No public events today. On Thursday, Mark Carney was in the Quebec city of Saguenay, where he toured an aluminum facility and told a brief news conference he is “not interested” in a narrow U.S. trade deal.

A day earlier, in Toronto, Carney announced his government would invest over $2.7-billion over three years to build more than 18 housing projects across the city. Later, he and Premier Doug Ford toured a public transit site.

Also Wednesday, Carney’s office said that the Prime Minister spoke with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates. The two leaders spoke about tensions in the Middle East and the successful conclusion of talks for a Canada-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

Suggested reading, Elizabeth May: Here’s the Green Party Leader’s summer reading list.

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors that Determine the Fate of Everything by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

“It is a good read, amazingly based on a database of over 17,000 examples of successes and spectacular failures in project management,” May says. “The book is a masterclass in planning and execution of big projects.” She says she mentioned the 2023 book to Carney during an Oct. 4 meeting with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s Office says Gardner has addressed the federal cabinet.

Queen Esther by John Irving

May says Irving is one of her favourite writers, capable of producing complex sagas in settings that feature small New England towns, misfit orphans and human frailty. May says this 2025 novel, which features intense relationships and tragicomedy, is Irving at his storytelling best.

Schindler’s Listed: The Search for my Father’s Lost Gold by Mark Biederman and Randi Biederman

May says Randi Biederman was one of the speakers at the annual Shoah Project Remembrance service in Victoria this spring. Biederman read at that event from the 2019 book she wrote with her late husband, prompting May to seek it out. “It is a true story of remarkable serendipity and intrigue. Her husband knew nothing of his family’s history except that they died in the Holocaust. The authors ultimately discovered Mark Biederman’s name on Schindler’s List.”

Party Leaders: In St. John’s, Newfoundland on Thursday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference. In Victoria on Thursday, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May attended a community event commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No schedules were released for other party leaders.

Ministers on the road:

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was in the West African countries of Benin and Côte d’Ivoire from Tuesday to Thursday this week. In Benin, her commitments included opening the Canadian embassy in the seat-of-government city of Cotonou. In nearby Côte d’Ivoire, Anand held meetings on strengthening the country’s strategic partnership with Canada, including talks with her ministerial counterpart Nialé Kaba.

This week in Washington, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc alongside Janice Charette, Canada’s chief trade negotiator, held what the minister described as “trade-related meetings.” They included talks with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

In Calgary on Thursday, Defence Minister David McGuinty announced the launch of the Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub. McGuinty is on a trip to Alberta this week that began Wednesday and concludes on Saturday.

New diplomats: Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has announced three diplomatic appointments, two of which involve China. Jonathan Brasnett will become consul general in the Chinese city of Chongqing. Marie-Andrée Lévesque will become consul general in the city of Guangzhou. Meanwhile, Julie Crowley is Canada’s new ambassador in Armenia. Biographies here.

Political lives, Todd Lewis: The Saskatchewan senator, farmer and agricultural-sector advocate has died at 65.

Political lives, Lloyd Robertson: Former Globe and Mail Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife remembered the CTV news anchor as “a gentleman’s journalist.”

Question period

In 1987, the federal government led by prime minister Brian Mulroney announced plans to buy 10 to 12 nuclear submarines so Canada could assert sovereignty in its waters. However, in 1989, the government scrapped the plans as the end of the Cold War became evident. How much were the submarines expected to cost?

Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer.

Perspectives

Concession Carney faces his Neville Chamberlain moment

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 deadline approaches, Prime Minister Mark Carney is making concessions to keep looming tariffs at bay. This could prove to be a defining moment in deciding the fate of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, for the choices are stark: appeasement or defiance, with little room for maneuver in between.

— Fen Osler Hampson is Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University and co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations.

The Conservatives need to ask: Why do we want to win – as Conservatives

The greatest success, in politics as in business, goes to the entrepreneur: the person who persuades people to want, not what they already know they want, but what it never occurred to them to want until then. Politics, it is often said, is the art of the possible. Not so. It is the art of expanding the possible.

— Andrew Coyne, Columnist

Clean up in aisle 3! Zohran Mamdani’s misguided recipe for cheaper groceries

It adds up to this: A city of nearly nine million people, whose residents face the real problem of a very high cost of living, will aim to address that by opening five pint-sized supermarkets offering deeply discounted food that is heavily subsidized by taxpayers, on a first-come, first-served basis.

— Tony Keller, Columnist

Go deeper

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The answer to today’s question: The cost of acquiring 10 to 12 nuclear submarines was pegged at about $7.5-billion to $8-billion in 1986 dollars, according to a 1988 report of the Standing Committee on National Defence, titled the Canadian Submarine Acquisition Project. The cost included $4.5-billion to $5-billion in “sail-away” costs for the boats and $3-billion for infrastructure.