America needs what Canada sells

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The author is the Minister of Transport and Internal Commerce of Canada. It adapted from his speech by receiving the Foreign Policy Association medal last week

The world is at an reflection point. A line of war in Ukraine. Yes, fighting between democracy and dictatorship is a specific democracy and a conflict between a certain oppression. However, it is also a broad competition between democracy and dictatorship. If Ukraine wins, every democracy in the world will be stronger and if Vladimir Putin does so, every oppressor will enjoy it.

The second reason for Ukraine’s success is because it is fighting both for one’s own survival and in an international order-based international order. A general policy at its center: Sovereign states do not attack each other.

In the eight decades after it was created, the rules-based international order was incompletely observed, to confirm. However, for its democracy, what is sometimes called “non-geographic West”, it has guaranteed the most successful era of peace and prosperity in our history.

Three years ago, when Russia started attacking the entire scale of Ukraine, Canada realized that Putin was reducing a basic principle. However, today, we Canadians feel more urgent and personally the fragility of that rules-based international order than at any time after World War II.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to be the 5th state of our “cherished” and threatens to use economic forces to create it. I am proud of my country’s spontaneous, unanimous and ambiguous response to this threat. Hockey fans are belting our national anthem. The restaurants are pulling our wine from their menu. Snowbirds are not flying south this winter.

Our country stands strongly and our government is taking the revengeful measures needed to show Trump Canada Not for sale and our sovereignty is not subject to discussion. As Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “We will not show us our respects and we will continue our tariffs unless we give us respect and unless they are credible, reliable promises in free and fair trade.”

We know what is at risk and we know what we are fighting for. I am not sure that the same can be said about our American neighbors. At the pocketbook level, there is no consistent argument for this threat to Canada’s sovereignty and the tariff war with them. Our economic relationships with the United States are balanced and mutually beneficial. Economic battles with Canada will make grocery and petrol more expensive for Americans – and have already broken the US stock market.

Whether it’s Canadian electricity, New York lights, or Canadian potash that fertilizes mid -west fields, or Canadian uranium that gives strength to the nuclear industry, which is needed in Canada, which is needed. And the United States exports more to Canada than China, Japan, the United Kingdom and France. We’re the largest customer in America, and America is the country where customers are always correct.

We were injured when the Trump administration began to threaten Canada. Then we became angry. Now, we are rolling our sleeves and going to work.

In the face of the challenges of this existence, we promise to determine a Canada, which is more powerful, more elastic and more distinct than the United States. Now, as the Prime Minister has said, during the formation of Canada, it is time to reduce trade barriers in our own country and to do something big. Canada is ready to get to work. So much so that former Prime Minister Jean Craratien made the joke that he would like to nominate American President for Canada’s order – thanks for helping us to play together.

Canadians are ready for a tough time in front. And we know that in the end we will be okay. We will stand with Ukraine. We will continue to fight for democracy at home and around the world. And we will work with equivalent countries to renounce the rules-based international order and make it fit in the 21st century.

But I must admit that it would be better to do this as well as our American friends and neighbors. Canadians remember that when we fight for freedom and democracy together, our North American partnership is above all over.

Ronald Reagan wrote as: “Canada and the United States … sharing a lot more than a general border; we share a democratic tradition thayah and we share hopes, dreams and desires of free people.”

His words clearly describe our sharing and constructive past. They should also guide our future.