Joly told Liberals she briefed Carney on Trump tariffs

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s office confirms she has briefed Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney on President Donald Trump’s tariffs days ahead of Sunday’s leadership vote this week.

Carney is the presumed front-runner for the party’s leadership and could become prime minister as early as next week — which would make Trump’s growing trade war with Canada his problem to sort out.

Joly told Liberal MPs at a national caucus meeting on Wednesday she has been briefing Carney ahead of the Sunday vote.

According to multiple Liberal sources with knowledge of what happened at Wednesday’s virtual national caucus meeting — including an MP who was there — Joly suggested that she has not yet briefed the other Liberal leadership candidates.

The sources cannot be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting.

The sources said that when a caucus member pointed out that there are three other candidates, Joly said she would brief them if she can.

The minister gave MPs an update during Wednesday’s meeting on Ottawa’s response to Trump’s tariffs. Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould, both caucus members and candidates for the Liberal leadership, were not present.

Joly’s director of communications James Fitz-Morris said he would not comment on what happened in the caucus meeting because those meetings are considered private.

He said Joly has “been in touch and has offered briefings to all of the leadership candidates” and described her as having “rolling conversations” with many different people about Canada-U.S. relations during recent weeks.

He did not say when the offers to brief the other candidates were made, but added Joly has not turned down anyone’s request to be briefed.

Unlike Freeland and Gould, Carney and fellow leadership candidate Frank Baylis are not elected members of Parliament and do not attend national caucus meetings.

“Chrystia Freeland has not received any briefings from the government or ministers since launching her leadership campaign,” Freeland campaign spokesperson Katherine Cuplinskas said in a statement sent late Wednesday night.

None of the other leadership campaigns responded to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Freeland has based her campaign on presenting herself as the candidate with the experience to fight Trump on the tariffs.

Gould has said Canada can’t take its relationship with the U.S. for granted ever again.

Baylis has insisted Canada has taken the wrong approach to Trump by appearing to bow down too quickly to his demands.

A large number of cabinet ministers and Liberal MPs have endorsed Carney, including Joly. She is set to appear with him at an event in Montreal on Thursday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to step down following Sunday’s leadership vote event in Ottawa.

Trump hit Canadian goods this week with sweeping 25 per cent tariffs but his administration granted a one-month grace period for auto tariffs on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press