Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / David Smith: The Guardian's Washington Bureau Chief on Mark Carney taking over from Justin Trudeau as Canadian Prime Minister

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David Smith: The Guardian's Washington Bureau Chief on Mark Carney taking over from Justin Trudeau as Canadian Prime Minister · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Canada has a new prime minister. His name is mac
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Canney and the Liberals love him. He got eighty five
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: percent of the vote and in his acceptance speech he
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  Speaker 1: promised to win the trade war. My government will keep
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect. The
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  Speaker 1: Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so.
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  Speaker 2: The Americans they should make no mistake in trade.
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  Speaker 1: As in hockey, Canada will win. Writing Talk Washington, bureau
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  Speaker 1: chief for The Guardian is David Smith, who joins me now.
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  Speaker 2: Hello David, good morning.
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  Speaker 1: So first, Matt Canny, who is he? He's never been
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  Speaker 1: elected before.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, only a limited political background. He actually
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  Speaker 2: started at Harvard University studying economics. He had thirteen years
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  Speaker 2: at Goldman Sachs's big financial resume he became Governor of
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  Speaker 2: the Bank of Canada and then and for British people
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  Speaker 2: like me, we became familiar with him as a governor
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  Speaker 2: of the Bank of England and he was dealing with
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  Speaker 2: the tumult of Brexit, Britain's departure from the European Union.
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  Speaker 2: And then he went on to be a UN Special
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  Speaker 2: Envoy for Climate Action and Finance. He worked for an
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  Speaker 2: investment firm, and it was just September of last year
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  Speaker 2: he became the chair of Canadian Liberal Party's Task Force
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  Speaker 2: on Economic Growth and now suddenly he's leader of the
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  Speaker 2: Liberal Party and going to the Canadian Prime Minister. So
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  Speaker 2: in that sense, it's a meteoric rise after a long
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  Speaker 2: career mainly in finance and banking.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, but it's a magnificent CV, you have to say.
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  Speaker 1: And he's coming with great confidence, you have to say
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  Speaker 1: as well, because he went hard for Donald Trump right
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  Speaker 1: from the start. So what's the reaction to that being like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it.
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  Speaker 2: Was striking the way Carney really laid down the law
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  Speaker 2: in terms of for his response to Trump's tariffs and
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  Speaker 2: especially this strange motion Trump has been floating of Canada
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  Speaker 2: becoming the fifty first state of the US, and Charlie
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  Speaker 2: made clear that is absolutely not going to happen. I
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  Speaker 2: would say, so far, the reaction in the US has
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  Speaker 2: been relatively muted, and perhaps that's the that's the biggest
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  Speaker 2: insult of all we can throw at Canada. You've not
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  Speaker 2: seen Trump unleashing a barrage of social media posts or
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  Speaker 2: you know, not graciously welcoming the new leader and we
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  Speaker 2: haven't heard much from senators or representatives either. Obviously this
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  Speaker 2: news is being reported in the US media, but yeah,
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  Speaker 2: there's actually not been a great deal of political reactions
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  Speaker 2: so far, which which maybe tells you sadly where where
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  Speaker 2: Canada US relations are and how it's not seen as
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  Speaker 2: a huge priority in Washington.
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  Speaker 1: No, But at the same time, this has seems to
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  Speaker 1: be the way to actually approached Donald Trump. When he
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  Speaker 1: does his bluster, you bluster him by.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And we've got this fascinating role call of world
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  Speaker 2: leaders so far, all trying to figure out how do
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  Speaker 2: you handle Donald Trump? And just for example, a couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks ago, I was covering the visits of Immanuel
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  Speaker 2: Macron of France and Kirs Starmer of Britain, and both
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  Speaker 2: of them really used a charrat and stick. They gave
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  Speaker 2: Trumper a lot of flattery and people say, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's like giving candy to a child. And then and
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  Speaker 2: obviously Kiir Starmer produced a letter inviting Trump for a
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  Speaker 2: state visit with King Charles. But then, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 2: there were moments when both Macron and Starmer stood up
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  Speaker 2: to Trump and corrected him on is shues such as
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  Speaker 2: European funding of the war in Ukraine. And then of
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  Speaker 2: course we saw a very different approach from President Zelenski
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  Speaker 2: of Ukraine challenging Trump and the JD vance the Vice
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  Speaker 2: President in the Oval office, and that unraveled and turned
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  Speaker 2: off a sour and ended up in a in a
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  Speaker 2: shouting match. Then, you know, another example is the president
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  Speaker 2: of Mexico has been has been firm with Trump, and
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  Speaker 2: that seems to be working for her so far. We
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  Speaker 2: also have to see how how Carne plays this and
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  Speaker 2: for example, does he push back hard if if Trump
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  Speaker 2: tries to call him the governor uh lying that there
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  Speaker 2: should be an American province. You know, he may early
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  Speaker 2: on want to draw a line there and say, you know, no,
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  Speaker 2: do not address me as that.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed, David Smith, I thank you so much, the Washington
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  Speaker 1: bureau chief for The Guardian.
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  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:51
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