YORKTON - There is an old saying about ‘every cloud having a silver lining’ and that seems to be true even in the case of the blustering cloud of disruptive policy and regressive thinking that is American president Donald Trump.
While Trump continues an obvious effort to drag the US back to the 1950’s and in the process destroy long term relationships with the country’s neighbours and allies, it has meant Canada has to begin to grow beyond a perhaps all too great a reliance on its often navel-gazing neighbour.
On a national scale building trade relationship with countries other than the US has always been a positive thing relating to the idea of not putting all of one’s eggs in a single basket.
Diversified markets are a natural protection to trade.
The ‘Trump-effect’ should have multiple countries seeking new trade relationships, and that should mean a willingness to sit down and get deals done. Those deals need to be a priority from Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government.
And, it at least sounded like it was a priority in the recent Throne Speech.
“The Government is working to strengthen its relationships with reliable trading partners and allies around the world, knowing that Canada has what the world needs and defends the values the world respects,” King Charles said in French according to a producer.com article.
“Canada is ready to build a coalition of nations that share its values, nations that believe in international co-operation and the free exchange of goods, services, and ideas. In this new, world which is evolving at a frantic pace, Canada will chart the path forward.”
Just as importantly the ‘Trump-effect’ has at least some provinces realizing they are part of a rather diverse confederation of provinces and territories and that diversity opens the doors to a lot of domestic trade opportunities.
Through the years – no doubt to garner favour with one group or another – provinces have imposed barriers to trade.
Many leave you asking why. Is licensing in province ‘A’ really so inferior you need another licence in province ‘B’. Ditto for inspections, and a bunch of other regulations which are more a hindrance to trade than having a lot of reasonable purpose.
They are barriers which logically probably never needed to have been created, and they need to disappear now to help facilitate domestic trade in the face of Trump’s targeting our country.
So when Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford met June 1 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding focusing on collaboration between the two jurisdictions to remove restrictive barriers that limit the flow of trade, it’s a good thing.
Ford and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has signed a similar deal a couple of weeks ago.
Certainly the first step to dealing with Trump’s tariffs is to build a freer flow for trade within Canada with all this nation has to offer.
