Mark Carney Canada Us Trade Gains 51% Confidence in Talks
On April 30, 2026, mark carney canada us trade talks gained a public boost when Angus Reid Institute said 51% of Canadians were confident or very confident in Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada’s negotiating team. The polling lands as the joint review deadline for the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement approaches, with no Canada-U.S. meeting date on the calendar.
Angus Reid Institute polling
The same survey shows how quickly sentiment has shifted. Confidence rose from 46% in July 2025 to 42% in September 2025, then climbed to 51% by April 30, 2026. Two-in-five Canadians, or 42%, still expressed doubts, leaving Carney with majority backing but not unanimity.
Among Canadians who said they were confident, 76% pointed to Carney and his team’s qualifications. Another 24% said they believed Canada would get a good deal because U.S. President Donald Trump always backs off from his threats in the end. Among those who lacked confidence, 58% said Carney was poorly qualified, while 42% worried that no one could get a deal done with the unpredictable Trump administration.
Carney and Washington
Carney has framed the talks in sharply unequal terms. He said the U.S. “won’t dictate terms” and added, “It’s not a case where there is someone making demands, and a supplicant,” about the upcoming negotiations. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick answered in April 2026 with, “That is like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard. They suck,” a remark that captures how public the dispute has become before any formal Canada-U.S. session is on the schedule.
The friction is not only bilateral. Canadians preferred a trilateral approach to the talks by 46% to 25% who favored separate deals between Canada and the United States and Canada and Mexico. A majority of 55% also disagreed with the idea that Carney does not want a trade deal because having Trump as an adversary is good politics, while 62% said Canada should hold the line on difficult concessions and 38% preferred placating the United States.
Deadline pressure
The timing adds pressure. Trump and Carney agreed during the G7 summit in Alberta in June 2025 to a summer deadline for a trade deal, but that deadline passed without agreement. On April 30, 2026, the joint review deadline was looming, the United States and Mexico had already set a date to discuss their positions, and Canada and the United States still had not.
For Canadians watching the talks, the new polling suggests Carney enters the next phase with a stronger mandate than he had in mid-2025, but also with a sizable bloc that doubts both his team and the prospects for a deal. Doug Ford’s call for a bilateral Canada-U.S. agreement excluding Mexico adds another domestic pressure point as Ottawa heads toward the next round without a set bilateral date.
