America 'not at war' with Canada, insists U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

America 'not at war' with Canada, insists U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Bessent says Carney's 'doing what is best for the Liberal party, what's best for Mark Carney' not Canadians

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted his country is "not at war" with Canada, then proceeded to mock the threat Canada could pose to his country with "submarines from the Edmonton mall."

The secretary also suggested Prime Minister Mark Carney was to blame for the current "political shouting match" between the two countries because keeping the fight alive is good for his poll numbers.

Bessent made the remarks Monday in an interview with the U.S. cable news network CNBC, where he was asked if his country is now in a trade war with Canada.

"Well, I don't think you can be in a tit for tat with someone that's 13 times larger than you are," he said.

"I mean we're not at war with Canada. How are we going to be at war with Canada? What, are they going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton mall and sick them on us?"

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Pointing Edmonton's submarines at the U.S. today would be more than a little difficult.

While the West Edmonton Mall did have four recreational submarines to ferry tourists through an indoor lake, the ride closed in 2005 and the subs were broken up for scrap in 2012.

None of that seemed to matter in the ongoing war of words between the Trump administration and Canada that found renewed vigor this week after a trade deal between the two countries fell apart at the last minute.

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Carney said he pulled Canada's negotiating team back home late on Friday, Aug. 21 after the U.S. team introduced "last-minute changes" that the government deemed "unfair" and "uneconomic."

Those demands, Carney said the day after talks stopped, would have restricted Canada's ability to sign trade deals with other countries and undermined subsidies to French-language media and the requirement for bilingual product labelling.

The prime minister also said that the auto deal the U.S. wanted to strike would have degraded the industry over time, something he could not accept.

The day after pulling back from the table, the U.S. hit Canada with 50 per cent tariffs on about $28 billion worth of Canadian exports to the U.S. Carney followed that up by announcing Canada would match those tariffs dollar-for-dollar beginning Sept. 8.

Carney not doing what's best for Canada: Bessent

Since those trade talks fell apart the U.S. President Donald Trump has taken to insulting Canada on social media and trolling Canadians by renaming Lake Ontario, Lake America.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew have both pushed back against Trump, with Ford inviting the U.S. president to "kiss my ass" and Kinew comparing Trump to an "over the hill" band playing out their last days in a casino.

Carney has so far avoided joining in with taunts and jeers, but he did confirm that Canada is now in a trade war with its southern neighbour.

"You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked," Carney said last week.

Bessent said he talks were going well and Canada was "offered the best trade deal of any country on the globe" before Canada walked away "at the last minute."

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"I think it is very unfortunate that Prime Minister Carney has turned this into a political shouting match," Bessent said Monday on CNBC. "He came to power on an anti-American, anti-Trump agenda, he was 20 points behind in the polls and then he started this.

"It's unfortunate he's not doing what's best for the Canadian people, he's doing what is best for the Liberal party, what's best for Mark Carney, and in the long run the Canadian people are going to see through that."

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was also on American television Monday arguing that both countries will be hurt in the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S. because "no one wins a tariff war."

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Smith said that as long as tariffs remain in place, the impact will be felt most deeply by small businesses on both sides of the border, which will be forced to lay off workers to cope with the higher costs of a tariff war.

The premier said the best thing that can happen to both economies is for negotiators to return to the table, even when relations with the two countries remain strained.

"Canadians are confused, I think they're disappointed," she said. "I guess we're a bit confused, because we're such a strong ally, we have such integrated defence, we have such integrated markets, we don't understand why the Americans would want Canada to be weaker."

Peter Zimonjic is a senior writer for CBC News who reports for digital, radio and television. He has worked as a reporter and columnist in London, England, for the Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail, and in Canada for the Ottawa Citizen, Torstar and Sun Media. He is the author of Into The Darkness: An Account of 7/7, published by Vintage.