When Trump proposed that Canada agree to be annexed as the 51st state, Canadians responded by boycotting American products and avoiding travel to the U.S.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
For as long as Canada and the United States have been neighbours, some people have advocated for a more open border – for fewer restrictions on the flow of goods, services and people between the two countries. I have long been one of those advocates.
No more. For the sake of our country’s survival, Canada must distance itself as much as possible from the United States: economically, culturally, militarily.
Though it breaks my heart to say it, the Canada-U.S. relationship, at least for now, must enter a period of separation.
The history of Canada has been, in large measure, a history of attraction and reaction to the United States. Fear of American annexation helped push the British colonies toward Confederation. John A. Macdonald’s National Policy sought to protect Canadian manufacturing through tariffs. In contrast, Wilfrid Laurier as prime minister negotiated a partial free-trade agreement with the United States government, a proposal that Canadian voters rejected in the 1911 election.
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Gradually, as the United States rose to become by far the world’s most powerful country, the integration impulse overcame the protectionist impulse, leading to the auto pact in the 1960s, the free-trade agreement in the 1980s, and efforts at regulatory harmonization in the 2000s. There were joint agreements as well on settling boundary disputes and protecting waterways, air quality and other aspects of the continental environment.
And the two countries provide joint continental security through NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command.
Contrary to the warnings of nationalist critics, closer co-operation with the United States has benefited Canada’s economy and its security, at no significant loss of sovereignty.
But a white, populist, evangelical Christian nationalism is contaminating the political culture of the United States. It has given us the Moral Majority, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Donald Trump’s first administration, Jan. 6, and Donald Trump’s second administration.
We all know the litany of democratic backsliding of that second administration’s opening months: launching criminal investigations of political opponents; firing officials who give Mr. Trump news he doesn’t like; undermining independent institutions, including the Federal Reserve and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; encouraging gerrymandering to ensure Republicans don’t lose control of the House of Representatives; imposing tariffs on friend and foe alike; consorting with America’s traditional adversaries while undermining alliances; and worst of all, sending troops into the streets of Los Angeles and Washington, with Chicago apparently next in line.
Mr. Trump is “searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities and end elections,” warned Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Most Americans agree. A recent Reuters poll reported that 57 per cent of respondents, including four in 10 Republicans, believe democracy is at risk in the United States.
Canadians have responded to Mr. Trump’s proposal that Canada agree to be annexed as the 51st state by boycotting American products and avoiding travel to the United States. One poll reports that 54 per cent of Canadians with real estate in the U.S. plan to sell within the next year.
Canadians are deliberately distancing themselves from Mr. Trump’s America. Our federal and provincial governments must do the same.
That means moving more aggressively to eliminate non-tariff barriers within Canada. There has been some progress on this front, but not nearly enough.
It means leaning into trade agreements signed with the European Union and with members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It means improving trade relations with China and India, while pursuing new markets in Latin America.
It means increasing defence spending, as the federal government has committed to doing, while deepening defence and procurement ties with allies beyond the United States.
In that context, it was welcome to hear that Canada is moving with considerable speed to acquire a new fleet of diesel-electric submarines, and that the two finalists for the contract are a German company and a Korean company. Trade and security always intertwine.
And Canadians must ask themselves about the future of NORAD, at a time when the United States under Mr. Trump is threatening to confiscate Greenland and may be more adversary than ally in the Arctic.
Canada will always trade with the United States. It is the world’s largest economy, and it is next door. All Canadians hope Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government will be able to reach an agreement with the Trump administration to reduce tariffs.
But we must also look farther afield and within our own borders for new opportunities – and create as much distance as possible from the staggering colossus we can no longer trust.