Donald Trump’s repeated musings about Canada becoming part of the United States have – unsurprisingly – raised hackles in Ottawa.
“Not a chance in hell,” replied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while Finance Minister Dominic Le Blanc commented, “The joke’s over.” Opposition leaders were also upset, with Conservative Pierre Poilievre saying “Canada will not be the 51st district” and New Democrat Jagmeet Singh telling the incoming president to “cut it.”
Yet America’s president-elect keeps pushing Canada’s buttons. He suggested that the highly integrated economy and trade relationship between the two countries was overwhelming, and said that the trade imbalance meant that the US was subsidizing the economies of its northern neighbors.
In doing so, Trump underscored a persistent concern raised by some on the border side: namely, that Canada’s national sovereignty is threatened by too close a relationship with the United States.
This is not a new concern – in fact, it will be familiar to anyone who remembers when Canada first saw a free trade agreement with the US back in the 1980s, long before Trump’s influence extended beyond Manhattan’s real estate sector.
The road to free trade
In Pierre Trudeau’s final years as prime minister, the wheels began to move for Canada to consider a free trade agreement with the US.
The country was hit by a recession in the early 1980s, and in 1982, a Royal Commission was set up, chaired by Donald Macdonald, a former Liberal cabinet minister. Among its goals was to explore the future opportunities and challenges of the Canadian economy.
When the commission’s report came back in 1985, it endorsed seeing Canada seek a path forward in free trade with the US – with a view to creating improved and secure access to the American market, but nevertheless noted that “denying that access is a permanent – existential risk.”
The Macdonald report supported seeing Canada pursue a free trade agreement with the US
Then-prime minister Brian Mulroney, whose Progressive Conservatives had swept into office at the Liberals’ expense the previous year, was surprised by the commission’s findings.
“There’s a certain level of hard work that’s evident there and what’s being accomplished and very interesting ideas that will have to be carefully evaluated,” Mulroney said.
Some business leaders were excited about the prospect of a future free trade agreement, while labor groups had strong concerns – including possible job losses.
Not all politicians were there.
“If we move to a free trade arrangement with the United States, I think the political consequences are obvious,” said Bob Rae, former leader of the New Democrats in Ontario.
“Don’t ask people elected in the state or government to do a good job in managing the economy because all those decisions will be made in New York and Chicago and Washington and we will just be customers of the United States.” .”
Reporter Mike Duffy explains how the deal came together at the last minute.
Nevertheless, Ottawa entered into negotiations with Washington. A proposed agreement was reached in October 1987, and a free trade agreement was signed by Mulroney and US President Ronald Reagan in January 1988.
But free trade had not yet taken effect.
Liberal Leader John Turner has signaled his party will not make it easy for the government to do what he calls “the act of selling Canada.”
“We intend to fight across the country, we intend to fight in Parliament,” said Turner. “We intend to fight all the way.”
New Democratic leader Ed Broadbent said there had never been an “open and honest debate” on the full details of what free trade would entail.
The answer comes from Margaret Thatcher
The broad discussion of the free trade debate even reached Margaret Thatcher, when the British prime minister visited Canada in June 1988.
In 1988, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Canada and made headlines with her comments about free trade when she spoke to Members of Parliament in Ottawa.
“You don’t need to fear that Canadian nationalism will diminish in any way [in pursuing a free-trade deal],” said Thatcher.
Her unsolicited comments in Parliament will see the leaders of the opposition parties in the country complaining about the Iron Lady for interfering in the country’s politics.
“You have interfered in our national conversation about an issue that is likely to dominate the next general election in this country,” Turner said later that day.
“We are no longer a colony of Great Britain and we do not want to be a colony of the United States,” he added.
The NDP’s Broadbent questioned whether Thatcher had the right to “come here and meddle in Canadian affairs.”
Turner urged Mulroney to call an election to give Canadians a chance to weigh in on the issue. When the election was called in early October, Mulroney said that free trade would be the centerpiece of the campaign that will send Canadians to the polls next month.
Free trade and national sovereignty
The Liberals and New Democrats quickly pushed for a televised debate that would focus solely on the issue. But the Progressive Conservatives were cool to the idea.
Broadbent suggested that Mulroney understands that “the more Canadians know about the trade deal he negotiated with the United States, the less happy they are.”
In 1988, the Liberals and New Democrats wanted to have a televised debate focused solely on the issue of free trade. The PCs were cool with this idea.
The divisive topic was actually part of the upcoming debates between the leaders – including concerns about how the deal would affect Canada’s national sovereignty.
Turner argued that a shift to free trade would limit Canada’s ability to move away from US control.
“I believe you’ve sold us out,” Turner told Mulroney during an English-language debate on Oct. 25, 1988.
In Mulroney’s response, he denied that and said his Liberal opponent “wasn’t alone over patriotism.”
Don Newman and Wendy Mesley report on the leaders’ debate with Brian Mulroney, John Turner and Ed Broadbent. It aired on October 25, 1988 on CBC’s The National.
Mulroney’s Tories will return to power – and have a commanding majority, but with fewer seats than before.
The 1988 election would be the last for Mulroney, Turner and Broadbent to lead their parties.
Turner died in September 2020. Both Broadbent and Mulroney died in 2024. The hard fight for free trade was part of their legacy as leaders of the movement.
The first free trade agreement between Canada and the United States entered into force on the first day of 1989.
Five years later, it was replaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Then in April 2020, NAFTA was replaced by CUSMA – the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement – which was negotiated at the behest of Trump during his first term in the White House.
After his re-election in November, Trump announced that he would pay a 25 percent tariff on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico. That threat, along with his subsequent “district 51” remarks, were seen by some as signaling his intention to renegotiate CUSMA.
On New Year’s Eve 1988, the CBC reports on a free trade agreement that will go into effect the next day.
Source link
