President Donald Trump was publicly branded “a bad person” by a Canadian provincial leader on August 20, 2026, when Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told his countrymen that no agreement signed with the American president could be counted on to hold.
“Everybody knows the American president by now, he’s erratic, he’s irresponsible, and he’s not to be trusted,” Kinew said.
He carried the thought further: “That’s why I say you can’t make a good deal with a bad person, because who’s to say it’s not going to be undone?”
The timing made the insult sting. Negotiators from Ottawa and Washington were racing to finish a trade pact meant to stop tariffs that the 80-year-old president had floated at rates reaching 50 percent. Ties between the two neighbors have soured badly during Trump’s administration, and his threat to slap duties on a range of Canadian exports had forced both capitals back to the table. One night later, the talks fell apart, and the duties kicked in at 12:01 a.m. August 22.
Ottawa Said an Agreement Was Near
Kinew’s remarks came the same day that Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister handling the Canada-U.S. trade file, flew home from Washington following a sit-down with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. LeBlanc reported that the sides were very close and continuing to advance, with a Canadian contingent remaining in the American capital to work through the fine print.
Trump had called the developing pact very fair to both countries. What the terms actually were stayed secret — neither side published them — so companies in both nations were left guessing at the shape of any final package.
A tariff package hitting roughly $20 billion in Canadian exports had been scheduled to begin Wednesday, August 19, then pushed back to 12:01 a.m. August 22. That delay handed negotiators a slim opening. It went unused.
A Whiskey Truce With a Catch
Liquor was the week’s most visible battleground. Prime Minister Mark Carney had pressed the premiers to end their boycott of American booze, treating a return to provincial store shelves as a gesture of goodwill that might get the deal over the line.
Manitoba would go along with Carney and restock U.S. bottles, Kinew signaled, presenting it as national unity rather than a softening of his own view. Then came the caveat. “If we put the booze back on the shelves, don’t buy it,” he said. “Let it sit on the shelf … and buy the Canadian stuff instead.”
Canadians had shown remarkable discipline against Trump’s tariff threats, the premier said, urging them to keep going. That split — comply publicly, resist privately — summed up the bind facing Canada’s premiers, told to retire the loudest symbols of retaliation while the substantive economic disputes remained unresolved in Washington.
The arrangement lasted only days. With negotiations dead, Kinew announced Manitoba would keep American liquor out of Liquor Mart stores.
The Window Closed
The August 21 negotiations broke down in the final hours of the day, and one minute after midnight the following morning the 50 percent duties took effect. The list runs to about $20 billion in Canadian products, including whisky, wine, dairy, cement and hockey equipment. Energy, potash and critical minerals were left out.
Rather than put his name to what was offered, Carney said, he left the table. The Americans “asked too much and offered too little,” he said, describing the tariffs as a miscalculation and vowing that Canada “will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses.” On September 8, Canada’s own retaliatory levies kick in, covering electronics, pulp and paper, agricultural equipment, appliances, dairy and steel.
Three issues sank it, according to Carney. The treatment of Canadian content in automobiles, paired with Washington’s refusal to widen tariff relief to medium and heavy trucks, was one. A U.S. demand that Canada restrict its freedom to negotiate trade agreements with other nations was another. The third was American pressure on Canadian language and culture protections, which the prime minister pointed to as a matter of sovereignty.
Greer saw it differently, saying Canada had refused to close the deal and that “new demands and walkbacks of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance” struck over the previous days. On social media, Trump wrote: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!”
Premiers Split on Tone, Not Direction
Other provincial leaders spoke up that week too, though few matched Kinew’s edge. The premiers of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia backed the approach Carney was taking in the negotiating room, giving him political room to chase a settlement.
Kinew preferred confrontation. He called Trump weak, said the United States commands less global influence than it did 12 months ago, and argued the president is out of touch with his own voters on the cost of living, which the premier identified as the leading concern in the U.S. He also forecast that Trump would be slaughtered in the midterms.
On leverage, he was just as sure. “We’ve got the upper hand,” he said, casting the American side as back on their heels and coming to Canada in search of an agreement.
Within two days, events broke his way. Carney walked out, and Kinew declared himself fully supportive. “History will not be kind to Donald Trump,” the premier said. “So we should never appease him and we should fight back, which is what Canada is doing today.” His prescription: buy from Canadian businesses and stand behind Canadian workers — the identical logic he had applied to liquor shelves, now aimed at a trade war instead of a trade deal.
