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The writer is Canada’s minister for transport and internal trade. This is adapted from her speech accepting the Foreign Policy Association Medal last week
The world is at an inflection point. One of the battle lines is in Ukraine. Yes, the fight there between democracy and dictatorship is a conflict between a specific democracy and a specific tyranny. But it is also a broader contest between democracy and dictatorship. Every democracy in the world will be stronger if Ukraine wins, and every tyrant will rejoice if Vladimir Putin does.
The second reason Ukraine’s success matters is because it is fighting both for its own survival and for the rules-based international order. At the heart of this is a simple principle: sovereign states don’t invade each other.
In the eight decades since it was created, the rules-based international order has been imperfectly observed, to be sure. But for the democracies of what is sometimes called the “non-geographic west”, it has guaranteed the most successful era of widely shared peace and prosperity in our history.
Three years ago, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Canada understood that Putin was undermining a core principle. But today, we Canadians feel the fragility of that rules-based international order more urgently and more personally than at any time since the second world war.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would like us to become the “cherished” 51st state and has threatened to use economic coercion to make it so. I am proud of my country’s spontaneous, unanimous and unequivocal response to these threats. Hockey fans are belting out our national anthem. Restaurants are pulling US wine from their menus. Snowbirds are not flying south this winter.
Our country is standing strong and our government is taking necessary retaliatory measures to show Trump that Canada is not for sale and our sovereignty is not negotiable. As Prime Minister Mark Carney said, we “will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade”.
We know what is at stake and we know what we are fighting for. I am not sure the same can be said of our American neighbours. At a pocketbook level, these threats to Canada’s sovereignty, and the tariff war that goes along with them, lack any coherent rationale. Our economic relationship with the US is balanced and mutually beneficial. Economic warfare with Canada will make groceries and petrol more expensive for Americans — and has already battered the US stock market.
Whether it is the Canadian electricity that keeps the lights on in New York, or the Canadian potash that fertilises fields in the midwest, or the Canadian uranium that powers the nuclear industry, America needs what Canada sells. And the US exports more to Canada than to China, Japan, the UK and France combined. We are America’s biggest customer, and America is the country where the customer is always right.
When the Trump administration started to threaten Canada, we were hurt. Then we got angry. Now, we are rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.
In the face of this existential challenge, we are determined to build a Canada which is stronger, more resilient, and more independent of the US. Now, as the prime minister has said, is the time to build in Canada, to cut barriers to trade within our own country and to get big things done. Canada is ready to get to work. So much so that former prime minister Jean Chrétien has joked that he would like to nominate the American president for the Order of Canada — as thanks for helping us get our act together.
Canadians are ready for tough times ahead. And we know that, in the end, we will be just fine. We will stand with Ukraine. We will keep fighting for democracy at home and around the world. And we will work with like-minded countries to shore up the rules-based international order, and make it fit for purpose in the 21st century.
I must admit, however, that it would be so much better to do this work alongside our American friends and neighbours. Canadians remember that our North American partnership is at its best when we fight together for freedom and democracy.
As Ronald Reagan put it: “Canada and the United States . . . share much more than a common border; we share a democratic tradition, and we share the hopes, dreams and aspirations of free people.”
His words eloquently describe our shared and constructive past. They should be a guide to our future, too.
