PM Carney is refusing to 'take the bait' from Trump, Tom Mulcair says

So thank you.This happening as we're also learning this morning that the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge has been delayed.Here's a statement from the Windsor -Detroit Bridge Authority's interim CEO, Chuck Andry, that says Canada and the U .S.have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.Invitations had already been sent out for a Friday ribbon -cutting on the $6 .4 billion bridge between Windsor and Detroit.

Canada paid for.President Trump threatened back in February to block the bridge's opening unless the U .S.was somehow compensated.Joining me now to discuss is CTV News political commentator and former NDP leader Tom Mulcair.Tom, lots to discuss, breaking news this morning.

Let's begin with your take, your interpretation of what is happening with this bridge opening days after the Prime Minister said, no drama here.

Well, yeah, and I think that that's the only possible position that Mark Carney can take when he's dealing with Donald Trump.I mean, other than offering to supply more Pablum so they can give him more baby food so he stops bawling and crying and misbehaving, Donald Trump is Donald Trump.He doesn't have a clue about that bridge.He knows that there's a powerful Republican family that owns the old, existing, rickety bridge over the Detroit River, and he's going to take their side.And when he came out with his first complaints about the Gordie Howe Bridge, he said, well, Canada's going to pay for some of this bridge.And no, no, Canada paid for all of this bridge.

And the deal is with the state of It has nothing to do with the U .S.government.Yes, the border is there, and we're going to have to take care of that on both sides.But all of that stuff had already been taken care of.So this means that there's a very rich, well -connected family in the United States that is able to put political pressure on Donald Trump to get a favor to stop its competitor bridge from opening, full stop.

That's all this is about.And Trump doesn't know anything about this.And that showed when he used the information that had been provided in that meeting with the owner of the other bridge, he used that as, he actually wrote on Truth Social, the irony of using the word truth with that, all of his complaints about this bridge.So we had planned to open it with the Americans on the Michigan side.And lo and behold, Trump obviously said, no, the thing's not going to open.Now, he is the president of the United States.

He gets to invoke whatever he wants around the U .S.border.And the thing is on hold for now.I think, getting back to your point about what Mark Carney said, it's the only possible approach with Trump.He refuses to take the bait.

And so far, that's actually a source of frustration in the White House.Oh, I might not renegotiate the Canada -U .S.-Mexico trade deal.Oh well, you know, it's the only approach to take because otherwise you are playing Trump's game and then it just goes on and on.All of this will get settled in November when Trump gets thumped in the midterm elections.

Up until then, all bets are off.So the president can block the opening of the bridge?

Sure, it's the U .S.border.It's one of his top responsibilities.So he can invoke security, he can invoke this or that.We all know it's a game.

When Trump got banged out by the U .S.Supreme Court on his tariffs, he said, I've got lots of other routes.What he means is there are other escape clauses in there.So then after invoking national security around fentanyl, he invokes other pretenses that exist under American law, knowing that he will lose.But that's the life work of Donald Trump.

using the courts, using delay tactics, using whatever he can to try to get his way.There is a finite limit to what people will have to put up with with Donald Trump as a politician.He's got just six months left or so to go until those midterms, and then there's two years left, and then the guy is, thankfully, gone from the White House for good.In the meantime, he's causing chaos, which is another one of his trademarks.This is what he's done in hisbusiness dealings.

He knocks over the chess table instead of continuing to play a game with somebody else.Because that's Donald Trump.He causes chaos.He causes uncertainty.And then you're left to try to pick up the pieces.Here, Canada paid for a bridge.

Just the infrastructure, I don't know if you've had a chance to visit this thing, but just the infrastructure leading to that bridge has been a mammoth undertaking on the Canadian side.And the Americans and the state of Michigan went along, it's cost billions of dollars, and yet the same Donald Trump, on a whim, based on false information from a well -connected Republican who owns the rival bridge, which looks like it's about to rust and settle into the river anyway, is holding back progress on the most important trade relationship in the world between two countries.

Yesterday, Trump said that he was not looking.He very flippantly said he wasn't looking to renew the trade agreement.He said three different things in one sentence.Yeah.And then we heard from Hoekstra this morning.He had a different tone.

He said that they were very open to working with Canada.He talked about the partnership.But getting back to the bridge, do you see, Tom, and I hope this isn't a crazy question, this being a point of contention, a point of negotiation in the upcoming CUSMA negotiation?

Everything with Donald Trump is a point of negotiation, in everything.But I do think that once Trump is gone, and he will eventually be gone, This bridge issue will remain something that, in the imagination of people who try to understand how bad it was when Donald Trump was the president of the United States, will be able to look at the question of the Gordie Howe Bridge and say, you know, that was completely crazy, what Trump did, and nobody in the United States really pushed back.It was interesting to hear Hoekstra.I heard the clip that we had before, and he went to Potash, as an example.I would add oil.Because I think that the person who

nailed this the best, frankly, was Pierre Poiliev in a speech in New York just a few weeks back that you and I had a chance to talk about.Because Trump's main complaint yesterday about not wanting to have the US -Canada -Mexico deal was, look, you know, we've got a trade deficit with Canada and Mexico, we should have a trade surplus.Well, this just didn't.The only reason there's a trade deficit deficit between Canada and the United States is because we sell them a hundred billion dollars a year of oil at a very reduced price.We don't even add the value here.We don't do any refining.

We're not sending them a finished product where we've created jobs for Canadians.We send them the raw product and it goes to the Gulf Coast and it's refined there and then distributed in the United States.It's an amazing deal.So if Trump wants to make sure there's no more trade deficit, all we have to do is turn off the taps to the oil.If Trump wants to make sure there's no more trade deficit, as Hoekstra correctly said, well, all we have to do is turn off access to potash.Canadian potash goes into the fertilizer that is used in every acre of every farm in the United States that is making the food to feed Americans.

You don't want fertilizer?Fine.I mean, it sounds like somebody's gone back to Borat and we're making a joke about fertilizer.But it is an example of where one country has something, the other country doesn't have it, and you've always had free trade.You've had reciprocity.This goes back a long time in our relationship with the United States.

But of course, Trump doesn't understand long term, doesn't understand what's happened in the past, and he never thinks about what's going to happen in the future.It's always like a child.He's immediate.What do I get now, and what can I bargain for it?What am I going to get in return for it?Because he's always got a recrimination.

When he said, all I wanted was a bit of ice, he was referring to Greenland, a part of a country that is a member of NATO.This is how Trump reasons, like a four -year -old.country a map, but he sent in his defense minister, you know, his secretary of defense to start something that they don't know how to finish.Pure Trump.So the Gordie Howe Bridge is just an example of all of that that we've been going through with Trump since the beginning.And I do honestly believe, Marcia, for a long time it will remain the example of what it was like to deal with Donald Trump.

Let's see when it opens.Tom will care for us this morning.Tom, thank you for all of that analysis and for invoking Borat, which I think is a first in my 20 years of doing this, and I really appreciate it.Tom will care.We're going to talk to you again soon.