Canada’s most critical trade relationship, that with the U.S., is not what it used to be. From tariff shocks to political volatility, the neighbour many Canadian businesses thought they understood has fundamentally changed. Understanding that shift is the focus of a new initiative led by Carlo Dade, director of international policy at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
Dade says that Canada must rethink how it engages with the U.S., particularly from Western Canada’s vantage point. “We’ve seen changes within the Republican Party that we didn’t think we’d see again,” Dade says, pointing to the political undercurrents that have moved from the margins to the mainstream. He says that there have been significant shifts in power in the U.S., and the fundamental “how things work” is no longer well understood.
The university’s new policy initiative takes a three-pronged approach: conducting applied research to help sectors such as agriculture respond to disruptions such as tariffs and supply chain issues; partnering with U.S. regions outside Washington to build grassroots policy solutions; and training the next generation of Canadian experts on the realities of a remade U.S. political and economic landscape.
Dade stresses that this is not just about preparing for the next administration. “This is going to last longer than your average high school romance,” he says. “Once you open the Pandora’s box of things like tariff policy… you’re setting a new norm, a lower norm, that we’re going to have to deal with going forward.”
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | All Podcasts
