As he delivered the hard sell pitch last spring for Canada to buy his submarines, Oliver Burkhard, the CEO Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (tkMS), used the phrase "strategic partnership" half a dozen times.

Canada would be part of "a family," he said.

We will — perhaps — soon get a better sense whether that approach is music to the ears of Prime Minister Mark Carney and key members of his cabinet, who are expected to spend much of Tuesday meeting with senior German politicians and business leaders in Berlin before touring the country's premier shipyard.

The prime minister will meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and is slated to participate in a business roundtable with the goal of diversifying Canada's trade and coming up with a critical minerals partnership.

The German-design

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