From the left: Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations members Arlene Dickinson, Wes Hall, and Tabatha Bull take part in a press conference during a Liberal Cabinet Retreat in Montebello, Que. on Jan. 21.Blair Gable/The Canadian Press
Canadian executives risk losing public confidence if they fail to publicly denounce Donald Trump’s tariff threats, one of the country’s most prominent business leaders is warning.
Wes Hall, founder of shareholder-services firm Kingsdale Advisors and a member of the newly formed Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, said in an interview that business leaders “must say in a single voice that this is unacceptable, we will not allow it to happen. All business people should be standing up.”
Executives on both sides of the border have been conspicuously quiet about the potential consequences of the U.S. President’s pledge to impose tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico as soon as Saturday. While a KPMG survey released earlier this week found that the vast majority of Canadian business leaders “wholeheartedly believe” that Canadian governments “must stand firm in protecting Canada’s sovereignty and values,” even if it hurts their business, Mr. Hall said individual business leaders are reluctant to say so publicly for fear of appearing to be partisan supporters of the Liberal government.
“It doesn’t matter what politician you like or what political party you belong to. We are now in a fight for Canada. Mr. Trump doesn’t care which party is in power. He knows what he wants and it doesn’t matter who is in power, he is going to go and try and get it,” Mr. Hall said.
“And if we are not united and we are playing party politics, we are going to lose. We are going to lose the confidence of the Canadian people.”
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Kingsdale Advisors often helps public companies defend themselves against activist investor campaigns. Mr. Hall said the current tariff situation is similar, with Mr. Trump playing the role of activist investor and corporate Canada being the existing management team.
“If you can get the shareholders to be confused by the message that the management team is presenting and listen to your message instead, that is how you win an activist campaign,” Mr. Hall said.
“If we are not galvanized in our support for Canada and we are not speaking out publicly as business people and saying this is a threat to our nation and our way of life and our economy, and saying that publicly, it is almost a suggestion to the people who cannot speak like we do that maybe we are approving of what is going on.”
The Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations was established in mid-January to advise federal cabinet members on the tariff threat. The council’s 18 members include business leaders such as Mr. Hall, Cameco Corp. chief executive officer Tim Gitzel and Linamar Corp. executive chair Linda Hasenfratz; labour leaders such as Unifor national president Lana Payne; and policy experts such as Steve Verheul, who served as Canada’s chief trade negotiator during the first Trump administration.
Arlene Dickinson, another member of the council who also stars alongside Mr. Hall and other venture capitalists on the CBC series Dragons’ Den, said business leaders have been cautious about what they say publicly, hoping not to escalate what is already a politically tense situation.
“One of the things you don’t want to do when you’re dealing with somebody like Trump is react quickly and come out too chest-pounding,” Ms. Dickinson said. “It is not that I think they don’t care or don’t want to [speak out]. I think it is more that they don’t want to wade into something that could be harmful.”
“It is that question of anybody negotiating on their own, it could backfire, it could actually do more harm than good,” she said.
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What Canadian executives can do more of, Ms. Dickinson said, is talk publicly about the need to address domestic issues such as productivity deficits and interprovincial trade barriers.
“Should they be saying ‘Trump go away’? I don’t think so, I think that could backfire. But should they be saying ‘We love Canada,’ and should they be saying it to Canadians? I do think that is something we need more of, we need more people visibly and vocally supporting Canadian enterprise, investing in Canada and supporting the efforts to ease trade within Canada,” she said. ”Those kinds of things we could definitely be doing more.”
For Mr. Hall, it is especially important for leaders of businesses that employ large numbers of Canadians to speak up about their plans to protect jobs, as layoffs are a broadly expected consequence of tariffs.
“They should be speaking up for their employees that this is unacceptable,” he said. “They should be speaking up about this being an attack on Canada.”