Canada needs new approach to meet new U.S. challenges: Frum

Canada needs a “plan B” in the face of tariffs and political instability introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump, says writer and political commentator David Frum.

Frum shared that message Friday at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, during an appearance presented by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and Business Council of Manitoba.

Canadians have often faced challenges and difficulties in the U.S.-Canada relationship, Frum said, and there is “a well-established playbook” as to how Canada meets these challenges: the prime minister and premiers work together with their allies at the state level in an attempt to show U.S. Congress and the president why the measures the U.S. are taking are not in the interests of the American people.

Through a combination of “mobilizing friends (and making) timely concessions,” said Frum, a staff writer at U.S. magazine The Atlantic, “the trillion-dollar relationship flows along in relatively smooth waves.”

Today, however, Canada faces a different situation, he added, likening current relations to a scene from the 1964 spy film Goldfinger in which the titular villain has a laser pointed at protagonist James Bond.

“Do you expect me to talk?” Bond asks.

To which Auric Goldfinger responds: “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”

“It’s kind of hard to negotiate that situation,” Frum said. “That has been Canada’s problem. Since this new (U.S.) administration has taken power, there are a series of complaints, there are a series of threats, there are a series of attacks, but there’s no ask.”

The old playbook no longer works, he added, so the country needs a “plan B” in case it decides to abandon its current tactics.

One thing Canada could do is introduce export tariffs on products the country sends south of the border that would be difficult for the U.S. to replace, including potash, electricity, wheat used to make everyday pasta products and wood pulp used to make one-third of the toilet paper in the U.S.

With international student enrolment in danger at U.S. post-secondary institutions and scientific funding under threat, Frum recommends recruiting professors and researchers from America to move to Canada and continue their work here.

“Go poach their talent,” he said. “The United States has been poaching Canadian talent for a long time. Turn the tables, this is the moment to do that.”

Frum, who was a speechwriter for U.S. president George W. Bush in the early 2000s, went on to suggest Canada further develop its relationship with Mexico. While both countries have both been party to the former North American Free Trade Agreement and Canada-United-States-Mexico Agreement, it’s always been the U.S. organizing these trilateral relationships, Frum said.

“Canada needs to develop its presence in Mexico City (and) find areas of commonality,” he said. “You’re in a trilateral relationship. It’s a fact. Act on it and work on the last leg of that triangle in pursuit of a common goal.”

While introducing his final suggestion, Frum noted when it comes to defence agreements between Canada and the U.S., “the most important way Canada has contributed … is by the use of aerospace,” at times giving that aerospace away for free.

If Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system becomes a reality, the U.S. should pay for whatever Canadian “real estate” the system uses, Frum said.

“A lot of things that didn’t have a price before should (have a) price now,” he said. “And if this is a relationship based on transactions, the instinctive Canadian habit of trying to show itself as a good partner … may be a little bit out of date.”

Frum later offered what he called a “consoling thought.” People who grew up in North America after the Second World War have generally lived under safe and prosperous conditions their parents and grandparents fought for, he said.

It’s this generation’s turn to do the same, the 64-year-old suggested.

“It’s an awesome responsibility and kind of an inspiring one. So we have to do our part in the way that our parents and grandparents (did) theirs.”

While introducing Frum, Winnipeg chamber chairman Kevin Selch described the Toronto-born commentator as “one of the most influential political analysts of our time” and someone who “brings a rational conscience to the mainstream.”

Global trade, national resilience and Canada’s shifting relationship with the U.S. are topics that can feel “abstract and even daunting,” Selch said later, but he encouraged attendees to be courageous.

“As we face the road ahead, I’d like to leave you with the message that we shouldn’t fear change,” Selch said. “We should expect it and when it comes we need to face it prepared together.”

Around 150 people attended the event.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca