Canada’s Mark Carney criticizes UK state visit for Trump

LONDON — Mark Carney made clear his fellow Canadians “weren’t impressed” when Britain offered Donald Trump a historic second state visit.

The Canadian prime minister, whose Liberal Party won the country’s federal election last month after a race shaped by anger at the U.S. president, told Sky News the offer from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was grating.

“To be frank, they [Canadians] 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.”

Trump has repeatedly said he’d love Canada to become the 51st U.S. state and dismissively referred to Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.” The U.S president slapped tariffs on imports from Canada within days of taking office.

While Carney has been a strident critic of Trump, Britain’s Starmer has taken a different approach. On a trip to Washington D.C. in February, Starmer personally handed Trump an invitation from King Charles — who is also Canada’s head of state — for a second U.K. state visit.

But Carney said Starmer’s actions had “cut across clear messages” the Canadian government was trying to send to the White House in response to threats against its sovereignty.

U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden shrugged off the criticism by Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, when pressed Wednesday.

“We’ve got free speech in the world. Prime Minister Carney is entitled to his view,” McFadden told Sky. “He’s got to decide how Canada conducts its relationships with the United States, and by the same token, so do we. So I’m completely relaxed about the comments.”

King Charles will open the Canadian parliament on May 27, in a move Carney called a “historic honor that matches the weight of our times.”