Carney is purposely making his first foreign trip to the capital cities of the two countries that shaped Canada’s early existence.

At his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Carney noted that the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples, French, English and Indigenous, and said Canada is fundamentally different from America and will “never, ever, in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States”.

“The Trump factor is the reason for the trip. The Trump factor towers over everything else Carney must deal with,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Carney, a former central banker who turned 60 on Sunday, will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, and later travel to London to sit down with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an effort to diversify trade and perhaps coordinate a response to Trump’s tariffs. He will also meet with King Charles III, the head of state of Canada. The trip to England is a bit of a homecoming, as Carney is a former governor of the Bank of England, the first non-citizen to be named to the role in the bank’s 300-plus-year history.

Carney then travels to the edge of Canada’s Arctic to “reaffirm Canada’s Arctic security and sovereignty” before returning to Ottawa, where he’s expected to call an election within days.

Carney has said he’s ready to meet with Trump if he shows respect for Canadian sovereignty. He said he doesn’t plan to visit Washington at the moment, but hopes to have a phone call with the president soon.

(Jamaica Gleaner/Ap)