Gautam Mukunda: The US-Canada rupture is a lesson in declining leadership

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed at the last minute late last month, escalating a dispute tied to tariffs announced by President Donald Trump and matched by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. After the breakdown, Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Days earlier, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had suggested Canada couldn’t win a war, and Vice President JD Vance joked about Canada being like a U.S. state. The negotiations reportedly failed because U.S. officials couldn’t clearly establish authority to finalize a deal, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick then inserted tougher terms into a tentative agreement reached Aug. 18. Carney said the changes undermined any deal’s reliability and challenged Canada’s sovereignty.