The failure by the Trudeau party to respect the Canada/US trade relationship is costing local jobs. This week those jobs are in the forest industry. Last week Canadian dairy farmers were under attack. Next week it may be aerospace jobs or any of the other industries that rely on US trade to create employment.
On April 25th, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed countervailing duties as high as 24 per cent on Canadian softwood lumber imports. The Softwood Lumber Agreement that had been negotiated within 3 months of taking office by the Government of Stephen Harper expired on October 12, 2016. The Liberal government knew for over a year this day was coming. It failed to negotiate a new agreement.
Now, almost 400,000 jobs across the country are at risk, including thousands of forestry jobs in Renfrew County. Our lack of a respectful relationship with the United States is jeopardizing jobs in other ways.
The U.S. clearly stated it wanted Canada to live up to our shared defence commitment with NATO.
Trudeau responded by cutting the defence budget to its lowest level since the last Great War. This cutback came in spite of the fact that Canada’s military needs more than $2 billion in new money, just to maintain current operations.
Canada has chosen to rely on the United States to defend our sovereignty during a time of great uncertainty, further weakening our position in any trade or border dispute.
Every other Canadian Prime Minister has recognized that the most important foreign policy task of any Canadian leader is to have a good working relationship with our largest trading partner, the United States. That task requires a respectful relationship with the President of the United States.
The decision by the leader of the liberal party to hold one of their lobbyist fundraisers with the current President’s political opponent during the American election sent the wrong signal to our American neighbours. It signaled Canada could no longer be trusted.
By not considering the consequences of interfering in the democratic election of our closest ally,
Trudeau has failed the tens of thousands of Canadians who depend on trade for their jobs, from farmers to the men and women who depend on jobs in the working forest to put food on the table and pay the carbon taxes on their electricity bills.