Carney visits the White House

Mark Carney walked into the White House this week and emerged without getting berated, humiliated, or turned into a meme. In 2025, that counts as a diplomatic triumph.

This week on Craft Politics: Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy record a quick Cheeky Half from a Quebec hotel room to unpack Carney's first meeting with Donald Trump, the UK's big India trade deal, and why the British Conservative Party just came out against something it started negotiating.

We discuss:

Carney clears the lowest bar in diplomatic history. He sat across from Trump, didn't get J.D. Vance'd, said Canada's not for sale, praised the president just enough, and survived. Expectations are so low that "not getting humiliated" is now the measurement of success for a G7 leader visiting the White House.

The painful choices haven't arrived yet. Day one went fine. But something's going to have to give to get a deal on tariffs, and that's where it gets politically dangerous for Carney. Ontario Premier Doug Ford praised him. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith took shots at Ford instead.

The UK signs a massive India trade deal — and the Tories come out against it. Labour's Keir Starmer is now championing a Brexit freedom he campaigned against. The Conservatives, who started these negotiations under Boris Johnson, are attacking a normal double taxation clause because Reform UK told them to.

Andrew's identity crisis diagnosis. The Conservative Party doesn't know what it is anymore. Is it pro-trade and pro-Brexit, or is it trying to out-Reform Reform by going after Indian workers on a visa scheme that avoids double taxation — something the UK has with dozens of countries?

Plus: why this India deal is the most expansive one India's ever signed, why two million British Indians might remember the Tories coming after this, and why recording a podcast in the same hotel room looks extremely dodgy when you're two men leaving together.

00:00 Welcome and technical difficulties in Quebec
01:37 Mark Carney's White House visit — First hurdle cleared
04:25 The painful choices ahead — What Canada must give up
06:17 UK-India trade deal — Labour champions Brexit freedom
08:10 Conservative identity crisis — Fighting Reform on trade
10:45 Reform's election surge and the Conservative panic
12:08 Beer tasting — Boreal IPA du Nord-Est