Lutnick claims Canada pulled out of trade talks due to the Quebec election, Alberta referendum

OTTAWA — United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Canada walked away from a trade agreement with the U.S. due to “political purposes” that involved Quebec’s upcoming provincial election and Alberta’s referendum.

“It was manufactured,” said Lutnick, during a press conference in Washington on Thursday. “So there’s the sovereignty party trying to run, and they’re in the lead in Quebec and so this was Mark Carney manufacturing something that would try to keep them from winning, and then you have Alberta has an independence resolution.”

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada for an interim agreement on tariffs collapsed late Friday evening, after Prime Minister Mark Carney paused negotiations.

In a press conference on Saturday, Carney cited efforts from the U.S. “to restrict our protections of our language, our culture, and in effect, our sovereignty” as one of the reasons why negotiations failed.

Lutnick disputed Carney’s claim.

“If you think I ever said the words French — do I care about how the Québécois speak? I mean, what could matter less to America?” he said.

Canadian sources have previously told the National Post that it was Lutnick’s last-minute demands, which included the U.S. gaining control over which other countries Canada would be permitted to do business with, which derailed the agreement between the two countries.

The other sticking point for the Canadian side was the exclusion of Canadian trucks from tariff relief in the deal.

Lutnick said the words “medium and heavy-duty trucks” were only raised at 4 p.m. on Friday, hours before the U.S. tariff deadline on Canadian goods were set to take effect.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said earlier Thursday there is a possibility of reaching a “mutually beneficial” agreement with the U.S., after the country’s top trade negotiator said discoverability of French content on U.S. streaming platforms was never a “red line” for American negotiators.

“Canada welcomes that the U.S. is now withdrawing its positions on discoverability and labelling and is confirming that measures to promote French language and Canadian culture will not be subject to future U.S. trade actions,” he said, in a post on X Thursday morning.

“We look forward to further constructive U.S. clarifications on their other positions which would create the possibility of a mutually beneficial trade agreement that respects Canadian sovereignty,” he added.

In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said issues surrounding French language discoverability on U.S. streaming platforms was “the farthest thing from a red line” for the American side of negotiations.

A government source suggested that Greer was not entirely truthful in his interview.