Doug Ford and Danielle Smith were among the premiers who attended the First Ministers meeting in Saskatoon, Sask., this week.Nayan Sthankiya/Reuters
Coming out of what he described as “the best meeting we’ve had in 10 years,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford was comparing the Prime Minister to Santa Claus: “He’s coming, and his sled was full of all sorts of stuff. Now he’s taking off back to the North Pole. He’s going to sort it out, and then he’s going to call us.”
I get that the Premier was excited, or perhaps high, but I don’t believe that’s how Santa works. A preliminary visit just to show all the good little children around the world how full his sled is? Then he calls them each individually, after hotfooting it back to the North Pole, to tell them what presents they’re getting?
Still, if Mr. Ford went a little further than most of the premiers, he was in line with the general mood after Monday’s First Ministers’ Meeting, Mark Carney’s first as prime minister. Very positive, was the consensus. Much better than that last guy. We can work with him.
Why, it was all so jovial and collegial it called to mind another First Ministers’ Meeting, in March of 2016, Justin Trudeau’s first. Then the premiers were full of praise for his directness and sincerity, or just for being willing to meet them, after being iced for so many years by Stephen Harper. You know, the previous last guy.
This is what premiers do. Pour on the praise for the new boy. Gush about how the mood has changed. Enthuse about how willing you are to discuss his proposals. Then quietly bury them.
Then, it was carbon pricing. Now, it’s internal trade, and One Canadian Economy. Of course, these days the federal government has a sweetener, in the form of faster federal approval of projects deemed in the national interest, based on a number of criteria – those that strengthen Canada’s autonomy, or support economic growth, or are “a high priority for Indigenous leaders,” or have “clean growth potential.” But the premiers brought lists of projects to Mr. Trudeau’s first meeting, too.
If the premiers are still singing Mr. Carney’s praises, it may be because he has not yet announced which of their projects, specifically, will be put on the fast track, and which will not. The minute he does, someone will discover that their earlier enthusiasm had been misplaced, that while their province “had come to the table in good faith,” their earnest desire to help build this great country had not been reciprocated.
Carney lays out federal criteria for fast-tracking infrastructure projects
So it is with the discussions on internal free trade. To be sure, ever since Donald Trump began threatening to annex Canada and imposing punitive tariffs on our exports, the premiers have been talking with unusual patriotic fervour about the urgent national imperative of dismantling the hundreds of trade barriers the provinces have erected against each other over the years.
Which would be a lot more persuasive had the premiers not previously announced, on more than one occasion, that they had agreed to remove them already. The 1994 Agreement on Internal Trade was supposed to have ushered in an era of unity and prosperity, based on the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. The Canadian Free Trade Agreement, in 2017, was supposed to have done the same. For that matter, so was the British North America Act.
Yet here we are, in 2025, with internal trade barriers – mostly provincial, but also some federal – still clogging the country’s arteries, still restricting our GDP by as much as 7 per cent annually. Maybe this time is different. Maybe the flurry of bilateral trade deals the provinces have been announcing with each other of late – like sovereign states – signals the start of something bigger, and not just a new and more complicated way to balkanize the country.
Opinion: It’s easy to announce the end of internal trade barriers. Eliminating them is harder
But there is cause for some skepticism. Are we really about to disarm the professional associations in each province, which have steadfastly resisted accrediting their out-of-province colleagues all these years? Are provincial liquor monopolies about to be opened up to competition? Is Quebec about to scrap its construction labour laws? Is supply management in any jeopardy whatsoever?
There is equal cause for skepticism about how rapidly major projects will now move ahead. The federal government can legislate whatever two-year timetables it likes, but it cannot change the constitutional requirement of consultation with Indigenous groups.
Neither can it wish away the political obstacles that have stopped these projects from proceeding in the past – if not the environmental movement, then those patriotic, free-trading, unity-proclaiming premiers: the ones who still refuse to “approve” oil pipelines crossing their province, as if their approval were actually required.
Maybe the premiers will surprise us. Maybe Mr. Carney can work miracles. But I’ll believe it when I see it.