Canada-US Conflict Escalates as Carney Calls Officials’ Comments ‘Below the Dignity of Their Offices’

Mark Carney says Canada is ready to talk with the United States, but not while American officials keep making barbed remarks and trying to appear tough. “When Americans stop making barbed comments, stop trying to act tough and start being serious about these discussions, we can begin talking,” the Canadian prime minister said.

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When Americans stop making barbed comments, stop trying to act tough and start being serious about these discussions, we can begin talking.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated after negotiations on a trade agreement collapsed. Speaking to journalists after Canadian by-elections strengthened his Liberal Party, Carney described comments from US officials as “below the dignity of their offices.” The Liberals now hold 173 seats in Canada’s 343-member House of Commons.

Carney was responding in part to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who accused him in a CNBC interview of turning tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump into “political shouting.” Bessent said the United States was not at war with Canada, then mocked the idea of Canadian military power by asking whether Canada would take “their two submarines from the shopping mall in Edmonton and sic them on us?”

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below the dignity of their offices

The remark referred to four submarines once displayed at West Edmonton Mall. The attraction closed in 2005, and the submarines were scrapped in 2012. Carney had said in early July that Canada planned to order a new fleet of 12 submarines from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, its government’s preferred supplier. He described the purchase as cooperation on a platform shared by Germany and Norway, two of Canada’s closest allies.

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political shouting

Other American officials have also joined the exchange. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said Canada was a country “that has no army,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a meme mocking Canadian cadets. Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social showing Canadian geese styled with his haircut marching with rifles. Canadian social media users responded with AI-generated songs about the trade war and Trump’s unilateral renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

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their two submarines from the shopping mall in Edmonton and sic them on us?