UBC Prof., polls weigh in on Canada-U.S. relationship

Experts and polls agree, Canadians ought to reconsider a relationship with the United States that has fundamentally changed — with or without the effects of a threatened trade war.

The implementation of 25 per cent tariffs and counter tariffs on goods crossing the border in either direction was narrowly avoided Monday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised U.S. President Donald Trump he would bolster Canada’s security.

The tariffs were set to go into effect on Tuesday but will now be paused for at least 30 days while the two sides work towards a permanent deal.

UBC political science professor Stewart Prest says the series of events can “never fully be undone.”

Prest says it doesn’t mean fences can’t be mended in the future. But if that happens, he says Canada has to insulate its sovereignty against external forces.

“We really have to approach the situation with the understanding that we have to stand up for ourselves, and we have to find ways to very firmly say ‘no’ to proposals, ideas we don’t agree with,” said Prest.

What hasn’t changed, Prest says, is Canada’s physical geography.

“We will always be the United States’ northern neighbour. And so we have to find ways to continue to work with and engage with the United States and to rebuild those lines of friendship, but also to do so in a way that insulates our own decision-making and our own solvency.”

Meanwhile, a new poll from Research Co. finds some three quarters of Canadians want the country to expand trade with Australia and New Zealand, the European Union, Japan, and Mexico.

Research Co. President Mario Canseco says more than 60 per cent of Canadians and British Columbians polled say they’re willing to avoid American goods while shopping — if there’s a non-American alternative.

“The level of support for some kind of action to send the message is significantly higher,” said Canseco.

Prior to his conversation with Trump Monday, the poll also found more than half of Canadians approve of how Trudeau has been handling the tariff threat, compared to 47 per cent for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

But nearly 50 per cent feel a Conservative government would be better positioned to deal with the tariffs — or around 61 per cent among those aged 18 to 34.

Canseco says a majority of respondents also backed the idea that Canada should establish a legal panel to examine the North American Free Trade Agreement made between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to challenge Trump’s actions.

Prest says he’s not surprised that the threats are unifying Canadians.

“I think we have a renewed sense of what we have to lose,” he said.

“If we don’t stand up for that project, even as we continually argue amongst ourselves about how best to move forward, the fact that we want to move forward together and not as the 51st state, I think, is an idea that the vast majority of Canadians can really get behind.”

—With files from The Canadian Press