Carney says U.S. trip memorable, first time he didn't dance to Y.M.C.A. and the comment he wanted rolled back

Mark Carney talked about his memorable Washington trip and how it was the first time he didn’t dance to Y.M.C.A. The quip came during a conversation hosted by Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on Monday where the prime minister spoke about new government initiatives.

The popular disco song by The Village People has become an unofficial anthem for U.S. President Donald Trump. It was played during many of his rallies, and the group even sang it live . Last week, the musical group hit the stage again in Washington, D.C. for another rendition with Carney in the audience during the FIFA World Cup final draw.

Carney was there alongside the other leaders from host countries U.S. and Mexico, Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum, respectively. The prime minister returned to Canada after the ceremony on Friday.

“It’s always fun to go to Washington,” said Sutcliffe during an almost hour-long conversation.

“Always fun,” responded Carney with a laugh. “Well, I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that experience. It’s the first time I haven’t danced to the Y.M.C.A. when it came on, but there you go.”

In videos shared on social media, Trump was seen mouthing the words and dancing.

The prime minister also commented on one soccer team in particular that made the crowd gasp while he was in conversation with Sutcliffe.

“We get the winner of one of the European playoffs. Potentially Italy, or if not Italy, someone better than Italy,” he said, as some members of the crowd gasped and laughed.

“Well, by definition,” said Carney, turning to the crowd. “That’s the way it works, right?”

He clarified, as the crowd continued laughing. “This is not like an overall judgment but — can we roll that back?” he joked.

“A team that beats Italy,” said Sutcliffe, “would therefore be better than Italy.”

Carney then switched back to discussing his recent time in Washington, saying that he got a sense of “the scale of what we’re welcoming to the country.”

“Up to a billion people watch that draw — wow,” he said. “Those are three hours they’re never going to get back… but that’s the level of excitement in and around it. The country is going to show exceptionally well.”

At the end of the conversation, Sutcliffe asked Carney what his outlook was for 2026 and beyond. The prime minister touched upon the ongoing tension between the United States and Canada.

“Canadians came together in the face of challenges, challenges directly from the United States, challenges more broadly. And once people got over the shock of the situation, the desire is just to get on with it, roll up our sleeves, work together and move forward. And that’s what we’re seeing,” he said.

“I’m hugely optimistic because what we’re realizing, myself included, is there are such a wide range of things that we can do. We can build our homes. We can build our defense industry. We can capitalize on photonics, on AI, beyond.”

He added that when he, the minister of international trade (Maninder Sidhu) or minister of finance (François Phillippe Champagne) go to meet with any country in the world — “with one exception,” he said, referring to the United States — “they want to do more business with Canada.”

“They are desperate to do more business with Canada,” he said, “because we have much of what they want, and they respect us.”

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