The crisis has created a surge in patriotism among Canadians, with many in the country feeling that Carney is the best person to lead the country at the moment.
Trump has acknowledged himself that he has upended Canadian politics.
Carney called the tariffs unjustified and left the election campaign to chair his special Cabinet committee on US relations in Ottawa.
“We will fight the US tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada,” Carney said.
He said many Canadians are feeling worried and anxious about the future.
He also said that over the coming years, Canadians must fundamentally reimagine the economy in a drastically different world.
More than 75 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US.
“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” he said.
Carney is asking Canadians for a clear and strong mandate given “the biggest crisis in our lifetimes”.
Automobiles are Canada’s second-largest export and the sector employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries.
Carney announced this week a USD 1.4 billion ‘strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Trump previously granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on auto imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers.
In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-US border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.
Trump previously placed 25 per cent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products—as well as on all of America’s trading partners—on April 2.
The president has plunged the US into a global trade war—all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.
The tax hike on auto imports starting April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales.
“This is not an industry that is Donald Trump’s to steal or take,” said Lana Payne, the national president of Unifor, the union that represents auto workers in Canada.
Payne said Carney should tell Trump that if US automakers are going to sell cars and trucks in Canada, they are going to have to build in Canada.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Trump needs to “knock it off” when asked by journalists about the president’s repeated attacks.