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Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks during a meeting of northeastern U.S. Governors and Canadian Premiers, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 16, 2025.

REUTERS/Sophie Park

What we’re watching: The subnational US-Canada relationship, Golden Dome’s leaden weight, MAGA Iran crackup

Premiers meet with governors to shape US-Canada relations

While the national level drama played out between Donald Trump and Mark Carney at the G7 in Kananaskis, a lot of important US-Canada work was going on with far less fanfare in Boston, where five Canadian premiers met with governors and delegations from seven US states. The groups talked trade and tariffs, reflecting a Canadian strategy of working through deep state-level relationships to help manage the broader tensions with Trump and his policies.

The double-price Carney would pay for the Golden Dome

As he left the G7 meeting in Alberta, Donald Trump said the price tag for Canada’s participation in the US Golden Dome missile defense project would come in at a hefty US$71 billion. Trump expects Canada to join.“They want to be a part of it,” he said. But Canadians themselves aren’t so keen. A recent poll found that 63% of respondents do not want Canada to join the shield, meaning Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has expressed openness to the idea, is caught between placating Trump or siding with the skeptical majority of his constituents.

MAGA-splits over US intervention in Iran

As the world waits to see if the US will join Israel in attacking Iran – and potentially pressing for regime change – the MAGA-Republican coalition is divided. Hardcore America First voices like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson say no way, while most establishment Republicans and Democrats are still in favor. A new poll finds that while nearly two-thirds of Americans would view a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to the US, a slim majority of Republicans want nothing to do with Israel’s current efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear program militarily. Overall, 56% of those polled said they favor negotiations to rid Iran of nuclear weapons.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, on the day he is sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Service in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025.

REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Hard Numbers: RFK Jr. cleans house at the CDC, K-Pop’s Chinese comeback, and more

17: In an unprecedented move, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the vaccine advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. While Kennedy defended the “clean sweep” as necessary to restore public trust, experts warn that changes to the panel could threaten public confidence in government health agencies.

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US President Donald Trump appears onstage during a visit at US Steel Corporation–Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA, on May 30, 2025.

REUTERS/Leah Millis

What We’re Watching: Trump doubles metal tariffs, Canada Liberals bid to secure the border, Wildfires spread

Trump doubles steel and aluminum duties

Days after a judge nixed Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, the US president signed an executive order doubling steel and aluminum duties to 50%. Trump hopes the tariffs will boost domestic steel and aluminum industries, but the higher duties are terrible news for Canada, which is the top exporter of both metals to the US. Canada’s US-bound exports of steel were already down before Trump doubled the tariffs. Now they’re set to drop further — and take jobs with them. Mark Carney must now decide if he’ll respond, and risk provoking Trump, or back down and betray the anti-Trump, “elbows up” rhetoric he ran on.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025.

Paige Fusco

There’s at least one area where Canada can thank Trump

Canadians might not like to hear this, but given President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats, there’s at least one area of economic policy where the country owes the US leader a strange sort of thanks.

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Jess Frampton/GZERO Media

Calls for Albertan separatism are getting louder: Should Carney be worried?

King Charles III’s speech on Tuesday from the throne in Ottawa was like a family reunion for Canadian politicians.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was there, joking around with his old opponent Justin Trudeau, who, playing to type, wore an inappropriate pair of running shoes. Justin’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, who has known the king for 50 years, embraced the monarch.

But one important person wasn’t there: Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta. Smith, who made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago in January and skipped the last gathering of Canadian premiers in Ottawa, has shown mixed feelings about the Canadian federation.

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A sign calling for the protection of ostriches at the Universal Ostrich Farms is displayed in Edgewood, B.C., Canada, on May 17, 2025.

Aaron Hemens/The Canadian Press via ZUMA Press

HARD NUMBERS: Trump officials fight ostrich culling, Mark Carney wants to ReArm with Europe, Wildfires in Manitoba, Golden Dome price set

300: Senior Trump administration figures, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz, are lobbying Canada to spare over 300 ostriches set to be culled due to bird flu concerns at a British Columbia farm. The farm’s owners dispute the extent of the outbreak, arguing most birds are healthy. Oz has offered to relocate the ostriches to his Florida ranch. Canadian officials insist they must be killed to protect public health and the poultry industry, as avian flu outbreaks spread across both countries.

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Then-Bank of England Governor Mark Carney shakes hands with then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang before the 1+6 Round Table Dialogue meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, in Beijing, China, on September 12, 2017.

REUTERS/Etienne Oliveau/Pool

Canada faces a choice between the US and China

Amid a trade war and annexation threats, most eyes are on the US-Canada relationship right now. But the future of Canada’s relationship with China, the world’s second-largest economy, is also an open question, and observers wonder what rookie Prime Minister Mark Carney is going to make of it.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gives a thumbs up as he departs after meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 6, 2025.

REUTERS/Leah Millis

Elbows … up? Down? Which direction?

Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, won the election largely by adopting a pugnacious “elbows up” posture against the Trump administration. But now that he’s in office, he’s adopted a more diplomatic posture. His meeting at the Oval Office two weeks ago was remarkably civilized. He even called Donald Trump a “transformative president,” though a careful observer will note the ambiguity attached to the characterization. The meeting was a prelude to future talks on trade and a renegotiation of the USMCA.

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