Canada's efforts to diversify trade ties and wean itself off the U.S. market make it a better ally to America, Prime Minister Mark Carney told an audience of business professionals in New York City on Thursday.
Addressing the Economic Club of New York, Carney outlined Canada's economic strategy and the progress made so far. The visit is part of his government's efforts to drum up new international investment.
In his speech, he said Canada is weaving a web of international partnerships that is making it a much stronger, more resilient and more independent country.
He said that's good for Canadians and also for the United States, because it makes Canada a better ally.
"Canada Strong will help make America great again," he said, echoing the slogan U.S. President Donald Trump has used in past presidential campaigns.
Carney listed several areas where Canada and the U.S. should continue to work together, including the automobile and critical mineral sectors.
"We know that while Canada and the United States have had our differences over the centuries, we have always worked and eventually worked through them, because we share values and our common interests run deep," he said.
Carney pitched the audience on a "new partnership" between Canada and the United States.
"A true partnership that reimagines co-operation in specific sectors that are deeply challenged by global competition," he said. "A partnership with a different Canada, a stronger Canada, a more confident Canada... a country that's predictable, reliable and principled in a world that's anything but."
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in the House of Commons Thursday that Carney's speech was filled with "seemingly sophisticated but highly contradictory buzzwords."
"On the one hand, he says that we are in the middle of a rupture with the United States, while on the other he says he wants to make America, in his words, great again," said Poilievre.
"His elbows were again flapping up and down in the rhetorical chicken dance as he cannot seem to decide if integration with the U.S. is a strength or a weakness."
Carney's office has not yet identified the CEOs, entrepreneurs, business leaders and money managers he's expected to meet with in New York to pitch Canada as an investment destination.
The trip comes as Mexican and American officials assemble this week for negotiations on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.
The United States has not officially launched CUSMA negotiations with Canada.
U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Tuesday that while there are significant trade issues with Canada, he has been in regular contact with his Canadian counterparts.
The CUSMA review sets up a three-way choice for each country to make in July. They can renew the deal for another 16 years, withdraw from it or signal both non-renewal and non-withdrawal — which would trigger an annual review that could keep negotiations going for up to a decade.
Greer has suggested the Trump administration is unlikely to rubber-stamp a renewal and the three countries are preparing for lengthy trade talks.
Trump froze trade negotiations with Canada last year because he was angered by an Ontario-sponsored ad quoting former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.
While the relationship appeared to thaw in March after a meeting between Greer and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, no official negotiations have been launched.
Greer said Tuesday most countries "begrudgingly" accepted that some level of tariffs would remain, but Canada is in a "different spot" and it's "hard to see where that ends." He said tariffs would remain on Canada and Mexico, despite the trade agreement.
As the Trump administration continues to signal a turbulent path forward for the bilateral relationship — it paused the long-standing Permanent Joint Board on Defense earlier this month — Carney has focused on securing investment and deepening Canadian ties with other countries.
On Wednesday, Carney announced the federal government is entering into contract negotiations with Sweden's Saab to buy a fleet of surveillance aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
China is among the countries Carney is pursuing a stronger relationship with, following years of diplomatic turmoil. Carney was asked about his recent trip to Beijing during a panel discussion at the Economic Club of New York event Thursday.
The prime minister visited China in January and met with President Xi Jinping. China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, is in Ottawa this week for meetings, the first such visit in a decade.
Carney said the meetings were important because diplomatic relations had broken down, trade had been undermined by a series of tariffs and the relationship was "in need of a reset."
Carney said he told Xi China has to assume more responsibility for the global international monetary and financial system.
"In my judgment, they need to move more rapidly and more deliberately on it," he said. "I think we need to help them in a way around the margins."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
