Instead, the highly anticipated meeting Tuesday between President Donald Trump and his new Canadian counterpart Mark Carney fell somewhere in the middle: neither openly hostile nor outwardly chummy, evincing very little neighborliness, at least the type used on neighbors one likes.

A meeting between the leaders of Canada and the United States is not usually considered a high-stakes showdown, but there was little ordinary about this one. Here was newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney making his first visit to the Oval Office to see President Donald Trump,