Sarah Mills: There are always things for which we should be grateful
Sarah Mills says that even in tough times, we all have things we should be grateful for over the Thanksgiving weekend.
OTTAWA — France’s new ambassador to Canada says her country admires the Carney government’s response to “extremely radical” American demands and is calling for swift action to boost Canada’s strategic ties with Europe.
“My mission is very clear. It’s to work toward making France one of Canada’s closest allies in Europe, in each field, in every sector,” French Ambassador Hélène Farnaud-Defromont told The Canadian Press on Friday.
In her first interview since her posting started last month, Farnaud-Defromont said in French her country sees Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach to managing trade negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration as “exemplary.”
The prime minister called a halt to trade talks with Washington in August and accused the Trump administration of bringing fresh demands to the table at the last minute. Carney also has vowed to protect Canada’s language sovereignty and ability to regulate big tech firms.
“The stance, which is both very calm and very determined, by Canadian leaders in the face of demands from the U.S. that are, after all, extremely radical is really an attitude that commands admiration in Europe and … in France in particular,” she said.
“We know that a promise made or a treaty signed will be honoured, but in fact, we can no longer be sure of any of that.”
The European Union handles most of France’s trade talks with Washington. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the EU’s decision this summer to accept an American deal that imposes a 15 per cent tariff on many European goods but not on American ones.
Farnaud-Defromont said Europe and Canada are both navigating a turbulent global climate marked by economic upheaval, a war in Ukraine and political polarization.
France is grappling with a budget crisis and growing frustration among teenagers about the education system that boiled over into violent clashes with police this past week.
The broader uncertainty makes Canada “a very important and preferred partner” for France, the ambassador said.
“We, France and the French people, really want to present ourselves as sincere, reliable and steadfast partners, at the heart of these international uncertainties,” she said.
Farnaud-Defromont said that means building on already strong ties based on shared values, human rights, Canada’s many French-speaking communities and dozens of French companies that have operated for decades here.
“We have a bilateral relationship that is very good, comprehensive and substantial, but we believe we can achieve even more together, in areas that are truly strategic,” she said.
She said France offers Canada “win-win” co-operation in sectors such as aerospace, defence, energy, quantum technology and artificial intelligence.
France is one of 10 European Union countries which have never ratified a trade deal with Canada, even though that deal has been in effective operation for almost a decade. The French Senate voted against ratifying the deal in 2014 in the face of lobbying by the country’s politically sensitive agriculture industry.
Farnaud-Defromont said the French and Canadian economies would benefit if both countries did more together in complimentary fields such as space and defence.
Canada and the EU are holding a bilateral summit later this month. Many observers hope that meeting produces details of a proposed new partnership between Canada and the EU — one that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen controversially framed as “associate” EU membership for Canada.
Carney has instead referred to an “alliance of the future.” Farnaud-Defromont said concrete outcomes are more important than phrasing.
“We need to build this up. It’s very new and we need to do it fairly quickly,” she said of the partnership. “We don’t have time to spend years haggling over commas and periods.”
Farnaud-Defromont said Carney’s speech last month to the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg resonated with the French people. In that speech, the prime minister spoke of Canada’s long-standing ties with the continent and the many fields where Canada and Europe can work more closely together.
“We do not want to completely disrupt the system, but we do want to find new alliances and new multilateral discussion formats,” she said.
“We need to be inventive, we need to be innovative, flexible, and agile.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2026.
— With files from Émilie Bergeron
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
