Colin Robertson
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Our previous prime minister, who I think Trump initially liked because he had the name and he's an attractive personality, because he was seen to diss Trump behind his back, that brought on his ire and the relationship never improved.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Colin, I wanted to start with that throne speech. For our listeners who might not be familiar with Canadian parliamentary procedure, what's the importance of the King being on hand and is Carney trying to send a message here?
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Carney is trying to send a message. Remember, the throne speech is the vision statement of a new government. So having King Charles and Queen Camilla come over with all the pomp and circumstance and pageantry that we've inherited from the Westminster-style system, this is going to get world attention.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
But really, from Mark Carney's perspective, there's an audience of one, and that's Donald Trump, who more than anyone else appreciates that stagecraft is statecraft.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Now, later today in that throne speech, we'll hear what the government is planning. Carney has likened the current disruption in global trade to the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He managed the financial crisis and Brexit as a central banker. So what's his plan to manage President Trump and this current challenge?
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Well, they go together. He says we have to redefine our relationship with the United States. It will not be the same given the uncertainty and lack of reliability on both the trading partnership and the security relationship. So it involves, first of all, getting our own house in order. And that means reducing internal trade barriers. In many ways, we're still 13 different principalities.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
It's a bit like the European Union before capitalism. They became together. And he set July 1st as, in a sense, Liberation Day for Canada. Then he wants to build, baby build as he put it, infrastructure so that we can get our goods and services to market. And then that will allow us to do trade diversification.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
At the same time, he also wants to improve our defense, again, for security reasons, and put money into that. And he's going to give people tax cuts and build housing because we've taken in a lot of immigrants and he continues to want us to attract the world's talents.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
But we've got to do it in a way that it's not going to put pressures on housing, hospitals and education, schools, basically in Canada.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
You talked about how Carney will need to get Canada's own house in order to boost the economy. But he's obviously hoping he can sort something out with the Trump administration as well. What does his diplomatic playbook look like in that sense?
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Well, it is diplomacy, and he's been very careful not to be critical of Donald Trump. Our previous prime minister, who I think Trump initially liked because he had the name and he's an attractive personality, because he was seen to diss Trump behind his back, that brought on his ire and the relationship never improved.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
So Carney's very conscious of that, but he's also keeping some distance and pointing out to Trump, you've got to respect our sovereignty. And part of that, of course, is inviting the king over because he knows that Donald Trump has an affection for the monarchy.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
So having the king come over to Canada and reminding him that indeed Canada is a sovereign, different country, and it's a kind of subtle message, but it will also send a message to the world, especially given we're going to be hosting the G7 in a couple of weeks.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
You touched on Carney being respectful of Trump. He obviously went to Washington already and got the gilded Oval Office treatment, not the same treatment as Ukraine's president or South Africa's leader. But Donald Trump seems to respect him as the president does Britain's leader, Keir Starmer. How can the Canadian PM play that up in dealing directly with Trump?
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Well, I think what he's trying to do is he's trying to find, in a sense, counterweights to the United States. The first objective has got to be, remember, you can't change geography, nor would we want to. The biggest market in the world is still the United States.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
And having preferred access to the United States and having a security relationship as the most powerful military in the world makes an awful lot of sense. So that's the first objective. But as Carney has said, you've always got to plan for the worst. So he's looking for alternatives. And you look first to your old partners.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
And that's why he went to Paris and met with Emmanuel Macron and then went to London to meet with Sakhir Starmer and has pledged that Canada will be part of the Starmer-Macron coalition, the willing to support Ukraine coalition. talking with them on industrial defense cooperation and production.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
And in terms of our trade diversification, we have transatlantic and transpacific agreements, but we only use them to about 50% or 60% efficiency. And so that's something that we'll have to do more of, keeping in mind that it's not governments that do trade, but business.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
And so business in Canada has got to be encouraged to find business opportunities, both in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere, particularly in the Americas, where we also have 50-plus free trade agreements.
WSJ What’s News
EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
Colin Robertson, a career Canadian diplomat who is now with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Colin, thank you for your time.