Behind the scenes of Canada's push to avoid Donald Trump's punishing tariffs

Despite winning a month-long reprieve from potentially devastating U.S. tariffs, there is a deep sense of anxiety hanging over some of the most senior Canadian government officials who manage the relationship with President Donald Trump.

After a roller coaster of a weekend that saw frenetic negotiations to stave off the threat of 25 per cent tariffs, there are serious concerns the Canada-U.S. relationship is only going to get worse from here.

And while Canadian officials are pleased Trump did not make good on his tariff promise for now, they are under no illusions that he will stop threatening Canada. There is an expectation he will wield his great economic power to extract all kinds of concessions out of his northern neighbour.

That is the general assessment after CBC News spoke with seven senior Canadian government sources, at the federal and provincial levels, in order to get a better understanding of what took place behind the scenes during the urgent push to avoid tariffs.

CBC News is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive internal matters.

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