A week before Canada is set to impose retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American imports, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that the Trump administration must stop insulting his country if there was to be any hope of renewing trade talks.
Mr. Carney, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, welcomed a trio of special election victories by candidates from his Liberal Party a day earlier — the same day that several Trump administration officials took aim at Canada.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed Canada’s capacity to push back against American tariffs and rejected Mr. Carney’s assertion that the two countries are “at war.” Later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth disparaged a photograph of two female Canadian military cadets in a social media post.
Mr. Carney said that posts like Mr. Hesgeth’s from members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet were “beneath their office” and that they were blocking renewed trade talks.
“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions,” he said. “It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy.”
Liberal Party candidates took more than half the votes to win special elections in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia on Monday night, healthy margins in Canada’s multiparty political system.
The Ontario and British Columbia seats were already held by Liberals, and most analysts had expected the party to retain them. The Quebec seat, however, was held by a Conservative, and the race was a three-way contest with the Bloc Québécois, a federal party that promotes Quebec’s separation. The Conservatives finished third.
Mr. Carney credited the election results to his government’s response to Mr. Trump’s trade war.
“What’s a clear message from last night in three very different ridings across this great diverse country is that Canadians are behind the plan of the government, which is first and foremost about building strong at home, diversifying with reliable partners, building Canada strong for all,” he said.
Several polls released since Mr. Carney allowed trade talks with the Trump administration to collapse on Aug. 21 show that Canadians support both that decision as well as his plan to impose counter-tariffs on American products.
Polling analysts and political scientists typically caution against reading national sentiment into the results of by-elections, as they are known in Canada, which often turn on local issues. But several said that Monday’s results were an exception.
“These by-elections, which outside of these extraordinary moments could have become localized, I think were very nationalized in terms of what these voters were thinking about,” said David Coletto, chief executive of Abacus Data, an Ottawa polling firm. “It was about dealing with the Trump administration.”
After walking away from negotiations, Mr. Carney announced that Canada would impose tariffs on hundreds of American products at rates of 15, 25 and 50 percent.
An Ipsos Canada poll found that 73 percent of respondents backed Mr. Carney’s decision to match American tariffs “dollar for dollar” as of Sept. 8, a margin of support rarely seen in Canadian political polls.
But Mr. Carney’s confrontational approach carries risks.
Most economists agree that Canada’s economy is too small for its tariffs to meaningfully affect the United States, and it is far from clear that they will influence Mr. Trump at all — except, perhaps, to invite further retaliation. After Mr. Carney vowed to strike back, Mr. Trump threatened to double tariffs on Canadian-made automobiles to 50 percent, beginning in January, and to extend tariffs to auto parts currently exempted under North American content rules.
Canadian shoppers will gradually see price increases as a result of Canada’s own tariffs, while exporters reliant on the U.S. market face mounting losses from American levies.
As part of Mr. Carney’s effort to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the United States, he will address the European Parliament later this month.
Last week, Mr. Trump called Canadian officials “nasty” when he signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario Lake America, prompting disgust and eye rolls from Canadians.
Mr. Coletto said that if conditions worsen, Canadians might increasingly be willing to abandon the relationship with the United States altogether.
“I’m not convinced that most people think a resolution with the U.S. would be better for us than something of a sharper break, even if it’s unrealistic or irrational for us to think that’s a good outcome,” he said.
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