FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:1)Canada prepared to halt booze bans, meet other U.S. demands in exchange for tariff relief: sources; 2)U.S. senator says there’s ‘momentum’ toward trade deal after LeBlanc meeting; 3)Canadian-U.S. trade officials meet, Carney pushes for ‘comprehensive’ deal; 4)Some Canadians tell Carney Ottawa’s spelling protocol should lean British

1)Canada prepared to halt booze bans, meet other U.S. demands in exchange for tariff relief: sources

Courtesy CBC News

Darren Major, Katie Simpson, Kate McKenna · CBC News, August 7, 2026

Trade team told Americans Trump’s newest tariffs would kill will for talks if implemented

The Canadian government is preparing to meet some U.S. demands — including ending bans on American alcohol sales — in exchange for tariff relief as trade talks heat up ahead of the latest tariff deadline, according to sources.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a new 50 per cent levy on hundreds of Canadian imports by Aug. 19, citing complaints about provincial booze bans, dairy import quotas and the auto tariffs.

The Canadian side is willing to offer movement on those concerns, according to industry sources with knowledge of the negotiations. The Globe and Mail first reported on possible concessions.

In addition to ending the booze bans, the Canadian side is considering lifting retaliatory tariffs on U.S. autos and making some changes on dairy, the sources said. They didn’t say what changes were on the table in regards to the dairy sector.

In exchange, Canada is pushing for the U.S. to drop the new 50 per cent tariffs, as well as relief from the sectoral tariffs on industries such as steel and aluminum, and a joint announcement that talks on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will resume in the fall.

The booze bans and auto tariffs were part of Canada’s initial response to Trump threatening tariffs when he returned to the White House last year.

The federal government is prepared to meet some U.S. demands in areas such as alcohol, dairy and autos in exchange for relief from tariffs, according to sources. The CBC’s Katie Simpson reports.

Trump’s declaration that the 50 per cent levies were incoming cited U.S. complaints about how Canada distributes tariff-rate quotas for U.S. dairy products, arguing that Europe’s quotas are handled differently.

The industry sources also said Canada is working to reduce sectoral tariffs — on goods like steel, aluminum, lumber and autos — that have been in place since last year, though they said American negotiators have flatly indicated those levies won’t be removed entirely.

The sources spoke on the condition they not be named in order to discuss sensitive details about the negotiations.

Details about the discussions come after Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Canada’s chief trade negotiator Janice Charette met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Thursday.

LeBlanc said the meeting was “constructive and detailed” in a social media post on Thursday.

When asked Friday about what Canada is seeking in trade talks and what is being offered, LeBlanc’s office told CBC News that they “will not comment on specifics.”

Aug. 19 tariff date looming

The sources said the Canadian side has aggressively argued to the Americans that the Aug. 19 date will be a cliff-type moment, meaning there would be no political appetite among Canadians to keep talks going if the tariffs come into place.

Both sides have agreed to hold daily meetings at various levels up until that deadline, the sources said.

A number of provincial governments pulled American alcohol off the shelves in provincially run liquor stores, sending U.S. exports of wine, beer and spirits to Canada off a cliff. U.S. spirit-makers have said the ban has been “devastating” to their sales, while American wine sales in Canada plummeted $343 million US in 2025.

2)U.S. senator says there’s ‘momentum’ toward trade deal after LeBlanc meeting

CBC News, August 6

Katie Simpson, CBC News

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer says ‘this is the moment’ to get a Canada-U.S. trade deal. Plus, Power & Politics guest host Katie Simpson asks Cramer what wildfire smoke ‘punishment’ Canada can expect from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Premiers were holding an annual meeting when Trump issued his latest tariff threat. Despite the booze bans being one of the president’s latest gripes, a number of premiers flatly refused to restock American alcohol.

“There is not a chance in hell that U.S. alcohol is going back on the shelf,” B.C. Premier David Eby told reporters at that time.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, who joined the premiers for part of those meetings, said restocking American booze is ultimately a provincial decision. But he also suggested at the time that changes to booze bans should be part of a larger deal.

LeBlanc briefed the provincial and territorial governments following his Thursday meeting with Greer.

3)Canadian-U.S. trade officials meet, Carney pushes for ‘comprehensive’ deal

CBC News, August 6

Darren Major, Senior Writer, CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau

With Canada’s trade minister continuing talks with his U.S. counterpart in Washington, Prime Minister Mark Carney says he remains determined to secure a ‘comprehensive, global deal’ despite the looming threat of new U.S. tariffs on billions in Canadian exports.

Carney said earlier this week that negotiators are focusing talks with their U.S. counterparts on “all strategic sectors,” including autos, as that deadline approaches.

“We’re interested in a more comprehensive deal, a global deal that addresses the strategic sectors,” he told reporters in Saguenay, Que., on Thursday.

“Will we get all of that by the 19th of August? We’ll see. But we want to have pathways in order to get that.”

Last month, Carney said he’d spoken with Trump and that they agreed to ramp up trade discussions.

Trump took a jab at Canada on Wednesday night during a rally in Las Vegas.

“I love tariffs, right? Because we’ve been screwed by tariffs used against us for years. By China, by Japan, by South Korea, by Germany, by everybody, by Canada,” Trump said, as the crowd cheered.

“Canada’s nasty. They are. They’re nasty,” he added. “I love the people, but they’re nasty. Nasty leadership.”

4)Some Canadians tell Carney Ottawa’s spelling protocol should lean British

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Jim Bronskill, Aug. 3, 2026.

It seems some Canadians feel quite at home with the federal government’s preference for British spelling.

Messages to Prime Minister Mark Carney on the matter indicate several correspondents see the affectation as a way of countering U.S. cultural dominance.

A flurry of emails to Carney followed news last December that promoters of Canadian English objected to the federal government’s use of British spelling in official documents.

Dozens of pages of messages were released to The Canadian Press in response to an Access to Information request.

While some writers flatly objected to the federal shift, others applauded it as patriotic.

“In our effort to distance ourselves from our acquisitive, abusive southern neighbours, I support this move,” wrote one person.

“Always neighbours, never neighbors.”

In a Dec. 11 letter that touched off the public debate, five linguistics experts and an editors association representative pointed to the use of British spelling — such as utilisation, globalisation and catalyse (instead of utilization, globalization and catalyze) — in government documents, including the 2025 federal budget.

Canadian spelling is used widely and consistently in Canada — in book and magazine publishing, in newspapers and other media, and in the federal and provincial governments and their legislatures, the letter said.

“If governments start to use other systems for spelling, this could lead to confusion about which spelling is Canadian,” it added.

The experts asked the Prime Minister’s Office, the Canadian government and Parliament to stick to Canadian English spelling, “which is the spelling they consistently used from the 1970s to 2025.”

A widely published Canadian Press story about the letter spawned international coverage of the spelling spat.

Standard Canadian English is unique among the varieties of English around the world because, while it is influenced by its geographic proximity to the U.S., it has features distinct from both U.S. and U.K. English, the letter from the experts noted.

That nuance seemed to have been lost on some of those who felt compelled to write to Carney.

“The British spelling is more Canadian than U.S. spelling,” reads one message. “If we don’t protect our Canadian spelling, by favouring the British spelling, eventually our spelling with mimic the U.S.”

The names of the email writers were stripped from the newly released records in keeping with a privacy exemption in the access law.

Another message urged Carney to keep the British spelling “as this is what I grew up with and I quite like the British tradition rather than an American bastardized one.”

The experts’ key point about Canadian acceptance of “-ize” endings also appeared to elude at least one federal official.

In a response to one message expressing a preference for British spelling over American spelling, an officer who handles correspondence for the prime minister pointed to a 2017 blog post on a government website about why Canadian spelling is different.

The post noted that language evolves and that Canadians now share some spelling preferences with their neighbours to the south.

“Take the endings of verbs like ‘organize,’ ‘civilize’ and ‘specialize,’ for example: the majority of us favour the traditional spelling ‘-ize’ (the only spelling used in the U.S.) rather than the variant ‘-ise’ now so popular in British English.”

Several people simply told Carney to stick to Canadian English.

“Something is seriously wrong with our political ‘leaders,'” one person wrote. “We are supposed to be enthusiastically pro-Canadian whenever possible, but not in how we spell our words. Who thought this one up? Fools!”

Another correspondent favoured Canada spelling as a reflection of national identity and consistency in government communications, and alluded to the deep tensions with the United States over U.S. tariffs and threats to Canadian sovereignty.

“Preserving these standards is especially important during this momentous time for our country.”