If I had my way, Parliament would adopt unilateral free trade with the world or at least incrementally advance towards ever freer trade compared to now.
Instead, Trump has put Parliament in a difficult position. Every party has backed Trudeau's retaliatory tariffs against the US even though those same tariffs will hurt Canadian consumers more than they will anyone else. Sheer has even removed Bernier from his shadow cabinet.
Intellectually, the right decision would be for Canada to adopt unilateral free trade with the world or at least negotiate as much free trade as Trump would be prepared to accept. Psychologically though, Trump forces Canadian Parliamentarians into a corner having to decide how to save face against his attacks. If I were PM, I would try to solve this dilemma by not retaliating against Trump's tariffs, promoting freer trade, and then just making it clear that we'd chosen this policy in spite of and not because of Trump's belligerence. Politically, that could be difficult though, and any PM who doesn't take on a fighting stance against Trump's belligerence would risk getting ousted by his own party. I probably would get ousted myself similarly to how Bernier recently has.
An alternative option, at least if Canada were to adopt unilateral free trade with the world, would be for Canada to then make it clear that it will not raise tariffs against other countries at Trump's insistence come hell or high water. That could be a way for Parliament to adopt full free trade with the world without appearing to have surrendered to Trump.
So how does Canada's Parliament escape this dilemma? As long as it doesn't find a way to return to freer trade while saving face against Trump, this trade war will just escalate until it ruins the North American economy. What other path could Parliament follow that would allow it to return to freer trade without giving the impression of defeat before Trump? Until it solves that, we could be in a trade war that could drag on for years and destroy millions of jobs on both sides of the Canada-US border.
Instead, Trump has put Parliament in a difficult position. Every party has backed Trudeau's retaliatory tariffs against the US even though those same tariffs will hurt Canadian consumers more than they will anyone else. Sheer has even removed Bernier from his shadow cabinet.
Intellectually, the right decision would be for Canada to adopt unilateral free trade with the world or at least negotiate as much free trade as Trump would be prepared to accept. Psychologically though, Trump forces Canadian Parliamentarians into a corner having to decide how to save face against his attacks. If I were PM, I would try to solve this dilemma by not retaliating against Trump's tariffs, promoting freer trade, and then just making it clear that we'd chosen this policy in spite of and not because of Trump's belligerence. Politically, that could be difficult though, and any PM who doesn't take on a fighting stance against Trump's belligerence would risk getting ousted by his own party. I probably would get ousted myself similarly to how Bernier recently has.
An alternative option, at least if Canada were to adopt unilateral free trade with the world, would be for Canada to then make it clear that it will not raise tariffs against other countries at Trump's insistence come hell or high water. That could be a way for Parliament to adopt full free trade with the world without appearing to have surrendered to Trump.
So how does Canada's Parliament escape this dilemma? As long as it doesn't find a way to return to freer trade while saving face against Trump, this trade war will just escalate until it ruins the North American economy. What other path could Parliament follow that would allow it to return to freer trade without giving the impression of defeat before Trump? Until it solves that, we could be in a trade war that could drag on for years and destroy millions of jobs on both sides of the Canada-US border.