Frontrunner For Canada PM Says It Will 'Stand Up To a Bully' In Face Of Trump Tariffs

Mark Carney

The leading candidate to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister said Canada will not back down to President Donald Trump's tariffs, declaring we are "going to stand up to a bully."

Trump on Friday followed through on his campaign promises to slap 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, two top U.S. trading partners, because he says they have failed to stop immigrants and deadly fentanyl from crossing the border into the United States.

He will impose 10% tariffs on China, as well.

Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, told the BBC that "President Trump probably thinks Canada will cave in."

"But we are going to stand up to a bully, we're not going to back down," he said.

Carney said Trump's tariff plan will "damage the U.S.' reputation around the world."

"They're going to hit growth. They're going to move up inflation. They're going to raise interest rates," he said.

Carney, 59, one of five candidates running to replace Trudeau, who announced in January that he would step down after nine years in office, said Canada will retaliate in kind and "match dollar for dollar the U.S. tariffs."

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said he wasn't looking for "concession" and added that the tariffs will help power the U.S. economy, although many experts believe they will cause the price of goods to soar and rekindle inflation.

"It'll be a tremendous amount of money for our country, tremendous amount, these are big numbers," Trump said Friday. "And in addition to that, and you see the power of the tariff, I mean, the tariff is good, and nobody can compete with us because we have by far the biggest piggy bank."

Three Canadian cabinet members said at a news conference Friday that the government is unclear about what tariffs Trump will impose first, the Toronto Star reported.

They said the government would only respond to written declarations from Trump and not his political remarks.

"I'm not in the head space of President Trump," said Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, the Toronto Star reported.