iPolitics AM: All eyes on Carney as he heads into first one-on-one with Trump – iPolitics

Exactly a week and a day after securing a fresh minority mandate for the Liberals, Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to fulfill one of his core campaign commitments: namely, kicking off what he has already acknowledged will likely be a “difficult but constructive” conversation with United States President Donald Trump with a face-to-face meeting on Trump’s home turf in Washington, D.C.

As yet, no detailed itinerary on the whirlwind two-day visit has been released by his office, although his arrival at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland yesterday afternoon was duly captured on camera.

As per an X post from New York Times Canada bureau chief Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Carney is reportedly expected to join his American counterpart for a “working luncheon,” as well as an “Oval (Office) photo,” but beyond that, the “agenda (is) unclear.”

Joining him for at least part of the planned back-and-forth with a full contingent of senior White House officials will be a trio of key cabinet ministers, according to CBC News: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who “has a direct line to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the president’s tariff czar,” while Joly “has been communicating with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has emerged as a trusted Trump lieutenant in the first 100 days of the administration,” and McGuinty “has been leading the federal government’s border security build-up to appease Trump’s fentanyl and migrant concerns.”

Carney and his team are likely bracing for a “perilous few hours,” the Toronto Star predicts.

“As Carney was flying to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital, Trump was already airily dissing their Tuesday tête-à-tête. ‘I’m not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does.’”

When the afternoon wraps up, Carney “may emerge from his first face-to-face meeting with Trump with punitive tariffs on Canadian autos, steel and aluminum still in place, new threats in the offing, and nothing more than a promise for how future trade and security talks should unfold,” which would nevertheless be viewed as “a win in the eyes of key stakeholders and some premiers,” the Star points out.

“Several told the Star Monday that it’s unrealistic to expect the tariffs would be immediately lifted. Rather, they and others expect success for Carney is more about framing the path forward, what will be on the agenda in a review next year of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade deal, whether those talks would start earlier (which would be a concession from Canada as it is not up for renegotiation), and what additional things might be now on the table that weren’t when it was originally signed in 2018.”

Although there’s currently no word of a joint media availability, Carney is expected to make himself available to reporters this afternoon.

Back in the precinct, Conservative MPs and senators will first time since the party fell short in its third-and-counting bid to oust the Liberals from office, but nevertheless managed to secure its highest share of the cross-country vote in decades and boost its seat count from 120 to 143 even as their leader, Pierre Poilievre, went down to defeat in his erstwhile home riding of Carleton, Ont.

As is standard Conservative caucus protocol, no details on the timing of today’s meet-up have been released, but it’s expected to get underway behind the tightly-closed doors of the party’s traditional caucus room later this morning.

At the top of the to-do list: A series of potentially critical votes on whether to opt in to some— or all — of the  provisions outlined in the Reform Act, a backbench bill initiated by Conservative MP Michael Chong during the final months of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government aimed at rebalancing the power dynamics between party and caucus leadership and rank-and-file MPs.

In addition to sections that, if adopted, would give the caucus the final say over expelling or readmitting caucus members, it also “includes the ability to elect an interim leader if one dies, resigns or is incapacitated,” and establishes a process to “launch a leadership review to either endorse or replace a leader of the party,” The Globe and Mail noted last week.

“The vote on a leadership review is held by secret ballot, the same process that led to the ouster of former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole after he lost the 2021 election to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.”

Another time-sensitive question that’s likely to come up: Who should temporarily take on the title of Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition until Poilievre is back in his front-and-centre row seat in the House of Commons, which is now all but guaranteed to happen before the fall sitting gets rolling after two-term Conservative MP Damien Kurek served notice that he intends to step down as MP of the solidly Conservative riding of Battle River – Crowfoot, Alta., clearing the way for a byelection this summer.

Last week, CBC News reported that deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, House leader and former party leader Andrew Scheer and Michael Barrett, the party’s ethics critic are among the names “that have been floated by Conservative sources” in the days since the vote.

“Those three have been trusted Poilievre lieutenants throughout his tenure, (and) have been given leeway to speak for the party publicly, including during the election — a work assignment given to few other MPs or candidates” — and, perhaps most crucially, they “all endorsed Poilievre’s continued leadership in social media posts in the hours after the election loss,” CBC notes.

For its part, the New Democrats — and, more specifically, the party’s central governing council —  has chosen veteran B.C. MP Don Davies to act as interim leader until a race can be held to replace outgoing leader Jagmeet Singh, who announced his resignation last week.

As of right now, with just seven MPs remaining in caucus, the party longer holds official recognized party status, although Davies has already indicated that he intends to make the case for extending at least some of the accompanying privileges to the New Democrats when the House of Commons reopens for business later this month.

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