Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to discuss security and economic co-operation amidst growing tensions between US and Canada
Keir Starmer will meet Mark Carney on June 14 as tensions heighten between the US and Canada after Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Canada’s sovereignty. Mark Carney visited the White House last month in an attempt to repair relations between the two North American countries.
His attempts were rebuffed when the US president doubled tariffs on steel imports to 50 per cent, causing Canada to warn of “catastrophic” job losses, factory closures and disruption to supply chains. The UK is the only country to have avoided the 50 per cent tariff after the US president and Starmer struck a deal.
Trump warned Canada that it would have to pay $61 billion to be covered by his proposed Gold Dome missile defence system, or pay nothing if “they become our cherished 51st State”, the president posted on Truth Social.
The post was written just hours was after King Charles delivered a rare royal address to the Canadian parliament where emphasised the Commonwealth country’s sovereignty in “dangerous and uncertain” times.
The US president’s attempts to make Canada the ’51st state’ revived the fortunes of Canada’s Liberal Party, contributing to the party’s win at Canadian elections in March.
Starmer and Mark Carney are the only centre-left leaders in the G7 and Downing Street sees Mark Carney as a key potential ally, according to The Times. The two men have not met since the former governor of the Bank of England became Prime Minister of Canada in March. In an interview last month, Mark Carney criticised Keir Starmer’s decision to invite US President Donald Trump for an unprecedented second state visit to Britain.
The Canadian Prime Minister said it had angered Canadians at a time when the White House was putting them under extreme pressure. Trump has said he would be willing to wreck Canada’s economy in order to force it to become the ’51st state’.
“To be frank, we weren’t impressed by that gesture … given the circumstance,” Carney told Sky News. “It was at a time when we were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty.”
Last week, the Canadian government has proposed a bill to restrict some asylum claims and give authorities more power to halt the processing of immigration applications. Canada’s immigration minister Lena Diab said the Strong Borders Act is meant to curb organised crime and the flow of illegal drugs and weapons, while boosting the “integrity” of the country’s immigration system.
It includes provisions that would give police more power to monitor Canada’s shared border with the US. It could also bar those who have been in Canada for more than year from filing a claim for asylum. But critics said the bill, which seeks to expand authorities’ ability to open and inspect mail, would breach civil liberties.
The proposed legislation comes amid increasing pressure on Canada, which has historically been open to newcomers, to restrict immigration as the country deals with strained public services and a housing crisis. The previous government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau relied on ambitious immigration targets to fuel economic growth, and oversaw a sharp increase in people entering Canada as temporary workers and students.
At the same time, Canada saw a spike in asylum claims, with applicants waiting up to two years for their case to be heard due to the backlog. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won April’s federal election, has promised to address Canada’s “unsustainable” immigration levels.
Under current law, refugees can claim asylum in Canada either when they arrive at a port of entry, like an airport, or when they are already in Canada, with no restrictions on how long they can be in the country before claiming asylum. The new rules would bar asylum claims from those who have been in Canada for over a year, potentially making them subject to deportation.
They would also require people entering Canada from the US under the Safe Third Country Agreement – a long-standing deal requiring migrants to seek asylum in the first “safe” country they reach, whether it is the US or Canada – to file a claim in Canada within 14 days for it to be considered. Those who fail to adhere to those deadlines would still be able to undergo a risk assessment that would determine whether their safety is at risk if they are sent away.
The law also gives the government power to outright suspend processing new applications “for matters of public health and national security.” The wide-ranging 127-page measure would also expand the government’s power to open mail to advance a criminal investigation. And it would introduce restrictions on cash transactions above C$10,000 ($7,300; £5,400) and cash deposits by one individual into another’s account.
