Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said on Thursday that his country’s attempt to reduce its diplomatic and economic dependency on the United States because of President Trump will also benefit Americans.
“This is good for all Canadians, but it is also good for the United States, because a stronger Canada is a better ally,” Mr. Carney said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York. “We know that when 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.”
But Mr. Carney did not downplay the global turmoil brought by the Trump administration, changes that he first pointed out earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in a speech that attracted worldwide attention.
“The world is undergoing a rupture,” he said. “Led by the United States, technological change is accelerating at a pace we have not seen in our lifetime. The U.S. is transforming all its commercial relationships, as is its right. The world is becoming more divided and dangerous.”
Canada, he said, had responded quickly to these shifts “by diversifying our partnerships abroad.”
“We have to care ourselves and be true to ourselves,” he said.
The prime minister also directly criticized the tariffs Mr. Trump has imposed on Canada’s steel, aluminum and auto making industries. Many analysts fear that tariffs threaten the survival of companies in those sectors and may even ultimately doom auto making in Canada.
A return to the tariff-free trade in autos, Mr. Carney said, “is the best and most durable way to confront intense global competition.” He also reminded the audience of Canada’s role as the largest supplier of imported oil, natural gas and electricity and potash as well as its shipments of other important minerals like nickel, copper and uranium.
He lavished praise on the United States, even as he took aim at President Trump’s policies.
Mr. Carney said that the United States is approaching its 250th anniversary as “the most dynamic, resilient, and inventive country the world has ever seen, as a country whose founding values of liberty, democracy, justice, and openness should continue to serve as guides to its future and the future of the world,” Mr. Carney said. “That future should include a new partnership with Canada. A true partnership that reimagines cooperation in specific sectors deeply challenged by global competition.”
Mr. Carney, who was once the central banker of Canada and England and a senior investment executive, was with familiar faces on Thursday. Aside from his speech, the prime minister spent the day meeting with large investors in New York as part of his campaign to attract $1 trillion in investments to Canada over five years.
When he moved into politics last year, Mr. Carney was vice chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, a New York headquartered unit of Toronto-based Brookfield that currently manages about $1 trillion in assets. He was also chairman of Bloomberg, the financial and news service founded by Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.
Courting American investors might seem out of tune with Mr. Carney’s growing reputation as the leader who famously called on the world’s “middle powers” in Davos to band together in a world changed by Mr. Trump.
But earlier this month in Toronto, he also opened up the possibility that Canada might agree to join in with some of the Trump administration’s trade protectionism against if that will save free trade provisions of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement which is now up for review.
“Canada remains open to deeper integration, including options for fortress North America in selected sectors,” he told a meeting of progressive politicians. “And to be clear, those offers are on the table.”
Lori Turnbull, a political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia said that opening reflects the impossibility for Canada of fully or even substantially replacing the United States as a trade and economic partner.
“Canada is going to have to find a way to deal with this and the American are still going to put on the tariffs,” Professor Turnbull said. “We’re in the weak position and they can call the shots.”
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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