Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Union, met with Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney in Europe this week. As seen below, von der Leyen congratulated Carney and told him that the EU is looking forward to continuing to work with Canada in the future on a number of fronts including trade, investment and defense.
The two politicians will meet again at the G7 Summit in Brussels at the end of June.
Dear @MarkJCarney, the EU-Canada story is one of friendship, trust and standing side by side.
I look forward to writing its next chapter with deeper cooperation on trade, investment and defence.
See you in Canada for the G7 Summit and welcome you later in June in Brussels ↓ pic.twitter.com/ZFMtEjgcA9
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 17, 2025
While in Rome for Pope Leo’s first mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, Carney also met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
With the photo below, Carney wrote: “I had a good conversation with Vice President JD Vance while in Rome. We spoke about building a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States — one that addresses immediate trade pressures, strengthens our defence cooperation, and secures our shared border. We’re strongest when we work together.”
I had a good conversation with Vice President JD Vance while in Rome.
We spoke about building a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States — one that addresses immediate trade pressures, strengthens our defence cooperation, and… pic.twitter.com/wTjStCLoqa
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) May 18, 2025
Canadians including blockchain investor William Mougayar are responding to the meeting of Carney and Vance with hope.
Mougayar presented his wish list on X: “Same dollar Free trade, no tariffs, Economic union, More openness, Unified defence. No 51st state, 2 countries aligned. Am I dreaming or it’s possible?”
Trump hasn’t backed off his 51st state rhetoric, though Vance must have left it alone in order for Carney to have described their conversation as “good.” Carney himself, after a security and trade focused meeting with Trump at the White House earlier this month, said he looked “forward and not back and I think we established a good basis today.”
Carney will need to walk the line between cooperation with the U.S., which Canada needs, and capitulation to the U.S., which Canada rejected in the last election, paving the way for a Carney victory that was decisive but hardly a sign of unanimity in the country.
As Melissa Jean Gismondi writes in a Guardian editorial this week, “The starkness of Canada’s polarization is one of the election’s most significant outcomes. Some people fear we will fully descend into a two-party system, stuck in the kind of gridlock that has plagued the US.”
She adds: “Carney has perhaps the toughest job of any Canadian prime minister in recent memory. He must renegotiate Canada’s relationship with the US as it descends into fascism. Behind him is a divided country with divided interests.”
Note: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will attend the G7 finance leaders’ meeting in Banff, Alberta, Canada next week with fellow G7 finance ministers and central bank governors from Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy.