New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks alliances in Europe as he deals with Trump

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks alliances in Paris and London amid Trump's attacks on Canada.

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Paris and London on Monday (March 17, 2025) to seek alliances as he deals with U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada’s sovereignty and economy.

Mr. Carney is purposely making his first foreign trip to the capital cities of the two countries that shaped Canada’s early existence.

At his swearing-in ceremony on Friday (March 14, 2025), Mr. Carney noted the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples, French, English and Indigenous, and said Canada is fundamentally different from America and will “never, ever, in any way shape or form, be part of the United States.”

A senior government official briefed reporters on the plane before picking up Mr. Carney in Montreal and said the purpose of the trip is to double down on partnerships on with Canada's two founding countries. The official said Canada is a “good friend of the United States but we all know what is going on.”

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“The Trump factor is the reason for the trip. The Trump factor towers over everything else Carney must deal with,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Mr. Carney, a former central banker who turned 60 on Sunday (March 16, 2025), will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday (March 17, 2025) and later travel to London to sit down with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an effort to diversify trade and perhaps coordinate a response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.