Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let’s look at what happened today.
Mark Carney has accepted an invitation from Xi Jinping to visit China after they sat down today for the first formal meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Chinese President since 2017.
From Gyeongju in South Korea, Steven Chase reports that the meeting, which lasted nearly 40 minutes, yielded no concrete results, such as concessions, in a punishing trade war between Canada and China that is hurting Canadian farmers and fishermen.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit as Carney seeks new markets for exports to offset the economic damage that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are doing to Canada.
The encounter was far shorter than a Thursday meeting at the summit between Trump and Xi, which lasted about 90 minutes.
In brief remarks to reporters, Carney said he thinks Canada and China have hit a “turning point” in relations that he predicted would pay dividends for Canadian families, businesses and workers.
He said mended ties with Beijing create a “path to address current issues,” which include the trade war.
In other news, Trump says he won’t resume trade talks with Canada even after Carney apologized for an anti-tariff Ontario government advertisement that raised the ire of the President.
Laura Stone reports that, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One today, Trump said Carney apologized to him for the ad, which quoted part of a 1987 address from former president Ronald Reagan that warned of the dire economic effects of tariffs on the U.S. economy.
“I have a very good relationship. I like him a lot. But you know what they did was wrong. He was very nice, he apologized for what they did with the commercial,” Trump said.
The U.S. President called the advertisement “a false commercial” and claimed that Reagan “loved tariffs.”
Asked whether he’ll be resuming negotiations with Canada, Trump said no.
He has also said that he’ll raise tariffs on Canada by 10 per cent as a result of the ad but has not yet followed through.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment today. Carney was scheduled to hold a news conference on Saturday in South Korea.
Open this photo in gallery:
Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of a meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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What else is going on
Ottawa posts $11.1-billion deficit: The federal government posted a deficit of $11.1-billion for the April-to-August period of its 2025-26 fiscal year.
Law firm hires Mendicino: As of Monday, Marco Mendicino – Prime Minister Mark Carney’s former chief of staff – will be working at the firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell as a senior counsel and strategic adviser.
Court strikes down mandatory-minimum sentence for child pornography: The Supreme Court has ruled that the one-year mandatory minimum jail sentences for accessing or possessing child pornography are unconstitutional.
Canada’s GDP contracts in August: The gross domestic product contracted in August against widespread expectations of no growth, but an advanced estimate pointed out that the economy might escape a recession in the third quarter.
François-Philippe Champagne prepares for make-or-break budget: The budget the Finance Minister will deliver next week will be the biggest test of his political career, one that could determine whether he can survive in his current job, much less aspire to one day reach the top.
Defence chief apologizes for military’s racial-discrimination history: “We all know that an apology that is not accompanied by a tangible effort to address our failures, to remedy wrongs … would be hollow and without real meaning,” Chief of the Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan said in her announcement.
The slow-release dose: Canadians wait years for drugs, even those already deemed safe, because public funding takes longer to arrive than in any other G7 country. Some want that to change.
On our radar
Prime Minister’s Day: Mark Carney is in the coastal South Korean city of Gyeongju for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. Commitments today included a leaders’ working luncheon and delivering remarks at the APEC CEO Summit Leaders’ Special Session. Carney also met with China’s President, Xi Jinping, and attended a dinner for APEC leaders. On Saturday, Carney was scheduled to meet with APEC leaders and participate in an APEC family photo. He will also meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Chilean President Gabriel Boric and hold a news conference. He was then scheduled to depart South Korea.
Party Leaders: In Winnipeg, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May gave opening remarks to the fifth annual Youth Nuclear Peace Summit and virtually participated in House of Commons proceedings. NDP Interim-Leader Don Davies spoke to Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions, and later attended Question Period. No schedules provided for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Ministers on the Road: Defence Minister David McGuinty is travelling to the Philippines from Friday to Sunday to work on defense relations.
Public Opinion: A majority of Canadians surveyed support Ontario’s move to run an ad in the United States featuring remarks by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan raising concerns about tariffs, according to new research by the Angus Reid Institute. The same research finds that 43 per cent of respondents acknowledge the ad will put Canada in a worse negotiating position.
Quote of the day
“In recent years, we have not been as engaged. In fact, as you know, this is the first formal meeting between the Canadian Prime Minister and the President of the People’s Republic of China for eight years. Distance is not the way to solve problems, not the way to serve our people.” -Prime Minister Mark Carney to Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their formal meeting today in Gyeongju, South Korea on the sidelines of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.
Question period
It’s routine for Canadian finance ministers to buy new shoes before delivering their budgets. But which federal finance minister was the first reported in the media to have opined on the tradition?
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer.
Perspectives
What we need in this country is less money in politics, not more
And if, as a result, fewer political consultants, pollsters and advertising gurus are employed, I’m not going to cry myself to sleep. Neither should you.
— Andrew Coyne, Columnist
With their long-awaited budget, Liberals must answer the question: What do we want Canada to be about?
The upcoming federal budget won’t be routine. While budgets are political exercises as much as economic ones, the political exigencies of the day call for a plan to not only manage state finances and to set core policy goals, but to define the nature and purpose of the country itself.
— David Moscrop is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail.
How Canada can properly use China as a hedge against Trump
We should now be asking auto executives, labour leaders and provincial governments specific questions: What could we gain from strategic engagement with China? What would we risk? What are the alternatives?
— Stewart Beck is the executive lead for the LINC Asia program at Simon Fraser University’s Jack Austin Centre.
Go deeper
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The answer to today’s question: In April, 1955, finance minister Walter Harris was quoted in The Ottawa Citizen saying he did not wear new shoes when he presented the Liberal government’s budget. “I couldn’t afford them,” he said. Political scientists Alex Marland and Mary Francoli tracked down this point of history in a 2022 paper in the Canadian Journal of Communication.
