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Former prime minister Stephen Harper said late Wednesday that Canada must urgently pivot in the face of an erratic U.S. president and reduce its dependence on the American market to protect its sovereignty and the continued functioning of the economy.
Speaking at a gala in Ottawa to mark the 20 years since he formed a Conservative government, Harper said while he has “largely stayed silent” on U.S. aggression up until now, he feels compelled to speak out about what he described as an existential threat.
He said the U.S. has become “hostile” and its leader, President Donald Trump, is openly questioning Canadian sovereignty, launching threats and betraying trade deals, which poses a “serious challenge” that demands a muscular response.
While Canadians are “understandingly shocked, bewildered and angry” by what Trump and his enablers have done in recent months, Harper said the country must put emotion aside and focus on policy.
He said many in the business community believe “things will go back to the way they were in due course with secure predictable access” to the U.S. market with an American government that “upholds a global order.”
“I do not believe that is a safe assumption,” Harper said.
“Canada must adapt to new geopolitical realities. To be clear, these realities mean we must reduce our dependence on the U.S.”
While the U.S. will be the country’s “principal partner” owing to geography and longstanding trade ties, Harper said Canada’s ongoing relationship with the States requires “balanced and sober reflection.”
WATCH | Stephen Harper speaks at his official portrait unveiling ceremony:
FULL SPEECH | Stephen Harper speaks at his official portrait unveiling ceremony
Former prime minister Stephen Harper delivered a speech at the unveiling of his official portrait in Ottawa on Tuesday. The portrait of Canada’s 22nd prime minister was painted by Toronto artist Josh Richards.
Consider tariffs against U.S.: Harper
As Canada prepares to review CUSMA, its free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico, Harper said the government must ensure two outcomes from those negotiations: protecting Canada’s industrial base and preserving the right to sell its critical resources to non-U.S. countries.
Harper said Canada should consider levying tariffs on U.S. goods because a one-sided tariff arrangement could decimate the manufacturing sector.
Prime Minister Mark Carney dropped many of Canada’s reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods last summer as he pushed Trump to end the trade war.
And Harper warned that Canada must not become a captive resource colony of the U.S., shipping its valuable energy and minerals to a single customer.
He said Canada must also push through an oil pipeline to the B.C. coast and streamline regulatory processes to quickly build other projects that can help prop up an economy facing an assault and attract global capital.
“Not someday, but right now,” he said. “Friends, we need this.”
Harper said supporting the natural resources sector will solve two of the country’s problems: reducing the country’s overreliance on the flow of goods to the U.S. and western alienation that has prompted an Alberta separatist movement.
While Harper has said relatively little about his successor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau, he said Wednesday that the last Liberal government reversed many of the policies he enacted while in office “leaving Canada so much weaker and divided.”
Harper’s call to rethink the Canada-U.S. relationship is especially notable given he’s previously described himself as “probably the most pro-American prime minister in Canadian history.”
Meanwhile, Carney has launched the Major Projects Office to help fast-track projects in the natural resources and energy space. And as part of his memorandum of understanding with Alberta, Carney has also endorsed a new oil pipeline to the Pacific to sell more Canadian oil to markets in Asia and elsewhere.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper, right, and Prime Minister Mark Carney share a laugh during a ceremony for Harper’s official portrait unveiling in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Harper invokes historic comparisons
Harper also noted in his remarks Wednesday evening that Canada has stared down aggressive Americans before.
In 1866, the year before Confederation, some members of the U.S. government floated Canadian annexation and ripped up an existing free trade deal with Canada.
The country’s leaders at the time did not shrink in the face of U.S. hostility, Harper said, but banded together to form a new nation, Canada, to resist American expansionism — and a similar approach is needed now.
“It’s fashionable to pronounce everything today as unprecedented,” he said, something that comes about because we’ve become a country that “doesn’t teach history anymore.”
But what happened then and what’s going on now are “uncannily” similar, he said.
Harper’s frankness on the topic stands in stark contrast to current Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who did not mention Trump by name in his remarks to a party convention last weekend.
WATCH | Former PMs Stephen Harper, Jean Chrétien discuss Canadian unity:
FULL Q&A | Former PMs Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien talk Canadian unity in fireside chat
Former prime ministers Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien met for a fireside chat on Monday in Ottawa after the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded Harper its gold medal for his career in public service and his tenure as Canada’s 22nd prime minister.
