houston turns corner, voices full-throated confidence in prime minister mark carney
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premier tim houston speaks to media on july 3, 2025.
ryan taplin
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the chronicle herald
premier tim houston trumpeted federal-provincial co-operation while cementing his turnabout on the federal liberal government at the three-day council of the federation summit in ontario’s cottage country.
“there are people at the negotiating table that have more information,” the nova scotia premier said at a news conference tuesday when asked about the canada-united states trade strife and about retaliatory canadian tariffs.
“i have tremendous confidence in the prime minister and the team that is representing us as canadians, to look at all of the factors and the moving parts and come up with the best deal for canadians, all the while knowing that the u.s. administration changes their thoughts on things quite frequently,” houston said at the end of the second day of the three-day summit in huntsville, ont.
“i know that it is a difficult position for our negotiating team, for our prime minister but i have tremendous faith in the team that’s representing us to get the best deal and that’s my focus.”
a year ago, houston was probably contemplating a snap election call that came in late october, contrary to the fixed-election legislation his first-term majority government legislated in october 2021, setting july 15, 2025, for a provincial election.
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houston framed that early election call as a requisite for a strong negotiating message for the province to send to the federal government, saying nova scotia was being shortchanged by ottawa on issues like the fisheries and funding for the infrastructure upgrades on the chignecto isthmus that connects nova scotia to new brunswick and the rest of the country.
houston said when the election was called that the federal government was “very unkind” to nova scotia and that his progressive conservative government needed a fresh, strong mandate to get the federal liberal government, then led by justin trudeau, to take nova scotia seriously.
the fresh mandate came to fruition in the nov. 26 election with the pcs winning 43 of the 55 provincial seats.
in ottawa, trudeau resigned as liberal leader and was succeeded by mark carney, who scored a near-majority election victory on april 28.
carney joined the provincial and territorial premiers for a half day at their summit tuesday.
asked what was being accomplished at the third meeting of first ministers since carney’s election, houston said the group was “spending time together to really understand the sensitivities that we have in our own areas but also the opportunities.”
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houston said it is significant for the prime minister and his team to have passed bill c-5, legislation to break down interprovincial barriers to trade and employment and to allow projects deemed by the government to be in the national interest to bypass certain regulations, in order to speed up construction.
“for myself and other premiers, we’re doing what we can in terms of the interprovincial trade barriers,” houston said. “there is a lot of concrete action in just those two things. the major projects, the nation-building projects, there are a lot of them. certainly in nova scotia, i’m passionate about our wind opportunity and i’m actually seeing that move at a significant pace.
relationship building
“there are lots of i’s to dot, t’s to cross and technical analysis to happen but the very first step is to have agreement that there is something there,” houston said. “getting that agreement is something that might have taken years before but because of the relationships that are being built we can see where everyone stands much sooner in the process.
“canadians should be proud of the way governments are working together and canadians should feel incredibly optimistic that their elected officials realize the need for urgency and feel that urgency.”
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houston said the initial push was for provinces and territories to promote projects for the federal government to assess over the summer and the carney government intends to stand up and open its major projects office by labour day.
“there will be capacity there to really do analysis on them (projects),” houston said.
“for me, personally, i have in my mind that over the fall we’d have some clarity on the early wins that the (federal) government would see for our country.
“it’s all happening.”
ontario premier doug ford says canada’s premiers talked about shared goals at the premiers summit this week.
jack boland
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toronto sun
houston said it’s important not to focus on the artificial deadline of aug. 1 that u.s. president donald trump has set for imposing a 35 per cent tariff on canadian goods moving into the u.s. if a separate deal is not reached.
“i haven’t been focused on the date,” houston said. “the idea is to get the best deal and i would be worried that if we constrain ourselves that we have to get a deal by a certain date, we’d maybe have to do some things or give up some things or give up some leverage that we may not otherwise have to if we just focus on getting the best deal for canadians.”
houston said no tariffs would be ideal but “we’re not in that world right now.”
the premier said trump is pushing his tariff agenda.
“we have to be open-minded about what that might look like but there are many moving parts to that.”
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houston said carve outs of goods that fall under the existing cusma (canada-u.s.-mexico trade agreement) from pending u.s. tariffs are essential.
“keeping that intact is really, really important to our country and the rest will all fall into place.”
retaliatory tariffs
houston said any retaliatory tariffs from canada would have to be levied cautiously.
“we have to be cautious of the impact of retaliation on our own economy because there is one,” houston said. “it’s finding that balance of making sure that the president understands that we’re an important customer of the united states. we’re good friends and long-standing allies but also we can’t just be pushed around either.
“there’s finding that balance between pushing back but never losing sight of what the ultimate goal is and that’s the best possible deal under the circumstances that we face. we didn’t initiate this as a country, we didn’t start this, we’re just having to deal with what’s in front of us and i’m actually proud of the way it’s being dealt with.”
summit chairman doug ford, the premier of ontario, said at the closing news conference wednesday that the premiers discussed shared priorities.
“we met with indigenous leaders and front-line health-care workers, we sat down with prime minister carney, and that’s the first time that’s happened (at a council of the federation meeting) to discuss ongoing negotiations with the u.s. and how we’re working together to build a stronger, more competitive economy,” ford said.
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“we met as premiers and talked about the issues that matter most to the people we serve. we talked about standing up for workers in the face of president trump’s tariffs, we talked about cutting red tape, opening internal markets and building a stronger, more self-reliant economy.”
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