By The Narativ
Trump's negotiators handed Canada an entirely new draft on Friday evening — months into the talks, days after the President had already announced a deal, and hours before it all collapsed. They were not trimming clauses. They were asking for things Ottawa had never put on the table.
They asked Canada to accept restrictions on its ability to sign trade deals with other countries — Trump claiming a say in who Canada may do business with. They asked Ottawa to exempt Netflix, Amazon Prime and other US streamers from Canada's Online Streaming Act and from Quebec's Bill 109 — to ensure, a senior government official told the Globe and Mail, "more content from the U.S. and less Canadian content available on these platforms. This is a red line." And they asked Canada to drop French-language and Quebec cultural protections. Those "were never on the table, even though the United States tried until the very last minute," Carney said Saturday at Parliament Hill.
Carney refused.
At 12:01 a.m. Saturday, 50 percent American tariffs landed on Canadian goods. "They asked too much and they offered too little," Carney said. "We were not prepared to compromise Canada's sovereignty or undermine our key industries."
Trump asked for permanence and offered something he could take back. Dean Blundell flagged a snapback clause tabled after the President had already announced the deal — Trump could cancel the tariff relief any afternoon, on his own measurements, no appeal, while Canada's concessions stayed put. "It's a leash with a buy-in fee," Blundell wrote. Carney got there in one line: "We recognized that sometimes its signature was written in pencil."
