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Canada’s ‘damaged relationship’ with U.S. overplayed: expert

Canada’s ‘damaged relationship’ with U.S. overplayed: expert

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama held their first one-on-one meeting this week during the APEC summit in Manila, which media outlets have described as a budding bromance after years of icy Canada-U.S. relations.

On the same day of the historic meeting, Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, tweeted that his boss’s “top foreign policy priority would be to repair Canada’s damaged relationship with the US.”

But Peter Loewen, head of the Centre for the Study of the United States at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto, is skeptical that the relationship with Canada’s top trading partner eroded that much over nine years. While he concedes Harper was not a “warm person,” that did not impede Canada-U.S. relations in a big way.

“It’s been overplayed,” explains Loewen about the dislike Obama may have had for Harper on a personal level. “That’s just on the surface. Our economies are too deeply integrated for that to affect negotiations or talks.”

Loewen points to Obama’s recent decision to kill the Keystone XL project which would have connected Alberta’s oilsands to the U.S. Gulf Coast using a 1,900-kilometre pipeline and transporting about 800,000 barrels of bitumen a day.

“Trudeau supported Keystone, but Obama didn’t change his mind.”

Keystone is one part of a larger topic of concern between the two countries: how to deal with economic issues that are tied to climate concerns.

“We are getting to a place where we need to put a price on carbon. It’s very hard to address what carbon usage will be over the next 10 to 15 years,” Loewen says.

Economics and climate change

At the joint news conference on Thursday, Trudeau reiterated that his government is “serious about meeting reduction targets” and to tackle climate change, while Obama said all countries will have to “rethink how we do energy.”

Loewen says the environment will remain a sticky issue between the two countries as both leaders will be out to protect their turf.

“Along the Appalachian Band, there’s very dirty coal and in the a lot of places in the U.S., they’ve introduced fracking…Obama is happy to allow that. He didn’t really want to bring Canadian oil to the U.S.”

Other subjects to mull over include the movement of labour and goods across the border both ways. The integration of the border is a matter that needs serious examination.

“It’s not easy for a Canadian to uproot and work in the U.S. and vice versa,” said Loewen. “And we have millions of goods crisscrossing the border.”

Any talk of economics will also circle on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was signed under the Harper government. Trudeau has said his administration will have no qualms reneging on any deals under the 12-nation TPP pact that the previous government may have agreed to.

Obama cast a positive spin at the news conference saying that “we are both soon to be signatories to the TPP agreement.”

While a lot has been made of undercover deals that may not benefit Canadian industries or consumers, Loewen said the TPP would never be 100 per cent great for every sector in every country that signs on.

Much has been made of a TPP pact between the U.S. and Japan on foreign content in North American cars, leaving Canada and Mexico out in the cold.

“The TPP has side deals all over the place,” Loewen emphasizes. “In fact, Canada got protection for its dairy products since we have such a complicated system that protects about 10,000 families across the country. I’m sure it upsets dairy farmers in upstate New York or Vermont who won’t have access to our market.”

Loewen figures Trudeau is more of a pragmatist and will quickly sign the TPP agreement.

The war on ISIL

But it wasn’t economics that led the news conference in the Philippines. The first words Obama spoke were about “security issues,” “counterterrorism” and “the situation with ISIL and Syria.”

It’s not lost on Loewen who landed in Paris the day after the Nov. 13 attacks on the French capital, which have left at least 130 dead and another 350 injured. ISIS said it was behind the co-ordinated attacks that targeted six locales, including a concert hall. Investigators say there are at least nine perpetrators and eight are so far confirmed dead.

“Paris was sad and locked down but it is still the most beautiful city in the world,” reflects Loewen. “Look, to defeat these guys, we have to live freely. It’s still better to live in Paris than in Raqqa.”

Raqqa, in northern Syria, was declared the capital of ISIL a few years ago and exists under extreme sharia law.

One of Trudeau’s first declarations as prime minister was his commitment to withdraw Canada’s six fighter jets from bombing ISIS strongholds — a U.S.-led coalition that includes several European countries. When asked by a reporter whether Obama had asked him to re-consider that decision, Trudeau sidestepped by talking about providing humanitarian aid and drifted into concepts of continuing a “collaboration” with other countries in the counterterrorism battle.

“I don’t think he knows where it’s at. It’s a hard file,” says Loewen. “We don’t like Canada’s involvement in war — it’s icky and the jets were not symbolic of the country. But, Trudeau can say to our international partners that we would send military trainers to help Kurdish fighters.”

Loewen adds that it’s actually even more dangerous to do that.

“It’s NOT safe, [Canadian military trainers] will be almost on the frontlines. We shouldn’t sugarcoat that.”

As for humanitarian aid, it’s something Loewen says Canada can take a lead on and “role model that to the Americans.”

“We have a pretty good reputation for integrating refugees and to Trudeau’s credit, he reiterated his plan to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada.”

What Canada can also do is to improve conditions for the millions more stuck at camps in Turkey and Lebanon so that when the situation in Syria gets better, families can be ready to rebuild when they return.

“I think Trudeau has good instincts [and] he’s open to evidence and advice,” concludes Loewen.

“He knows who he is. He has genuine values he would follow.”