Prime Minister Mark Carney posted a 15-minute video on Tuesday morning, roughly nine hours after Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods took effect, telling Canadians that moving the country’s economy away from the United States will hurt — and that standing still would hurt more.
“We have everything we need to pivot and prosper,” Carney said. “That pivot will come at a cost. There’s always a cost to action. But it doesn’t come close to the cost of standing still.”
The video, titled “Forward Guidance: A Stronger Canada,” went up on Carney’s own YouTube channel and had passed 630,000 views by Tuesday evening. It is the latest instalment in a series he began last spring to explain government policy directly to Canadians. It was not a televised address to the nation, although several outlets described it as one.
Ontario is among the provinces taking the hit
Carney said the American tariffs were built to harm some Canadians more than others. Washington has repeatedly aimed at steel, aluminum, autos and lumber — industries concentrated in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia — while workers in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan have been less exposed.
Canada’s counter-tariffs took effect Tuesday in response to the 50 per cent tariffs the United States imposed last month on dozens of products, among them honey, hockey sticks, milk and cheese. The Canadian measures range from 15 to 50 per cent and cover only goods that appeared on the American list, matching the value of those exports at $27.8 billion.
“I don’t believe in escalating the conflict, that’s not constructive,” Carney said. “But our tariffs are necessary to protect our workers, protect our companies and our communities. We can’t let American goods into Canada tariff-free while they charge our companies to export them.”
A history lesson about 1890
He again accused American negotiators of seeking terms that would have limited Canada’s ability to trade with other countries and to promote and protect the French language and culture, saying the United States wanted Canada to become more reliant on it, not less.
“In the spring of last year, I warned that America is trying to break us so they can own us,” Carney said. “And I promised that that will never, ever happen.”
Much of the video was given over to history. Carney reached back to 1890 and the tariffs on Canadian exports pushed by Ohio congressman William McKinley under President Benjamin Harrison.
“It put 50 per cent tariffs on our exports to the U.S. Sound familiar?” he said. “McKinley’s 50 per cent tariff was meant to pressure us into dependence and eventually annexation by the United States. In reality, it did just the opposite.”
Canada diversified and grew stronger rather than weaker, he argued, while the United States saw inflation rise, a financial crisis and a four-year depression.
Conservatives want the deal published and Parliament back
Federal Conservatives spent the weekend pressing Carney to release the full terms of the deal Canada walked away from, and to recall Parliament ahead of its scheduled September 21 return.
“We’re asking for the prime minister to be straight-up. We know it’s not easy to negotiate with the U.S. president. But the best way to keep everyone united and rowing in the same direction is to be up front about the costs, the decisions and the plan going forward,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said at a news conference in Regina on Monday.
“The only people who haven’t seen [the deal] are the Canadian people. They deserve to see it, so they can judge what we are fighting for and what we are fighting against.”
TDot News opened and confirmed the video on Mr. Carney’s channel, including its title, length and posting time. The quotations above are as transcribed by The Canadian Press, which reported on the video Tuesday morning; TDot News has not independently transcribed the full 15 minutes.
Source: Forward Guidance: A Stronger Canada, 8 September 2026.
