In the wake of the latest round of tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his premiers are meeting in Charlottetown, Nova Scotia to discuss how Canada can leverage its leverage in trade negotiations with the US.
00:00:41.640Even politicians who build their political brand around opposing Trump are suddenly having to face reality.
00:00:48.080I mean, it makes sense. Once you get past all the slogans and all the political theater, reality is pretty simple.
00:00:55.320Canada needs access to the American market more than the other way around.
00:01:00.820And Canada cannot afford years of economic conflict with its largest trading partner.
00:01:06.000The tough talk sounds great at a liberal convention, but reality is a whole other ballgame.
00:01:11.160I think it's very constructive to go into a negotiation saying, or else, right?
00:01:16.120I mean, I think everybody is trying to get them to find out what the or else is.
00:01:19.780And I don't think you go into a negotiation promising to punch someone in the nose.
00:01:23.240You go into a negotiation talking about a win-win, and I think that that's more the Prime Minister's style, and I'm glad to see that.
00:01:29.820What I would say is you have to be very careful not to put things on the table that you're not prepared to do.
00:01:38.060And I'm going to try to prevent Canada from making a very dumb decision of putting energy on the table, because Line 5 goes through Michigan.
00:01:46.160If you cut off energy to the United States, they can cut off Line 5 and cut off energy to Ontario and Quebec.
00:01:53.800So no aviation fuel, no diesel, no gasoline, and we don't want to do that.
00:01:59.060So I would just say that it may sound tough to say those kind of things, but if you cannot do it practically and you're not prepared to live with the consequences of doing it, don't threaten it.
00:02:08.240And so there may be other things that with the passage of time that will come up, but I would say it's far more constructive to go into negotiations saying, hey, we want to deal.
00:02:17.400We want to maintain this really strong trade relationship and let's see if we can both get a win out of it.
00:02:22.180That's that's my approach. And I think that's the lesson here.
00:02:25.000Eventually, reality catches up. You can spend months and months attacking Trump.
00:02:29.720You can spend months pretending Canada has all the leverage.
00:02:32.820You can spend an eternity telling liberal voters what they want to hear.
00:02:36.880But when jobs, investment, trade and economic growth are on the line, suddenly the conversation changes.
00:02:44.420And as a winery owner, it's disappointing that, you know, it costs more money to send, you know, to send my money across Canada.
00:02:52.240I mean, even with the 50, the dirty secret is with the 50 percent tariff, it's still cheaper to sell it to the U.S.
00:02:58.140I mean, I think you're echoing the frustration of so many business owners across the country.
00:03:03.440Ron, I want to ask you, because in many ways, your perspective and your point of view is what really matters, given the kind of impact that you guys feel with these tariffs.
00:03:13.220So if you were to be writing this deal, what would be in it?
00:03:17.680I immediately allow Canadian made wine, Canadian made beer, Canadian made spirits, cider to be treated as domestic product with no provincial markup.
00:03:29.640Allow us to collect the HST or the PST.
00:03:33.320You know, in B.C., the PST is 42 percent higher than the regular PST.
00:03:37.360But allow us to collect that and stop collecting the 71 percent to 300 percent markups that all these provincial liquor boards are doing.
00:03:44.960You know, as you must be watching the premier's meeting happening in Charlottetown,
00:03:50.400as you're hearing premiers say that there is a united front among leaders across this country,
00:03:57.540What do you make of what they're saying and then what they're actually doing?
00:04:02.620This is no different than the MOU Memorandum of Uselessness that was signed last year to allow free trade by June of this year.
00:04:09.360I call on the provincial premiers to, because some of them are good people, is to get the bureaucrats out of the room to say we truly want a Canadian market and to get the provincial markups, the 71 to 300 percent markups that we have,
00:04:24.800and make Canada a truly strong market.
00:04:28.060After a morning of meetings with Canada's premiers,
00:04:30.700the Prime Minister says everything is on the table
00:04:33.200when it comes to U.S. trade negotiations.
00:04:46.000American tariffs have been focus number one in PEI this week,
00:04:49.760though there's differing opinions on how Canada should fight back.
00:04:53.600We are an energy powerhouse and we could dismantle the U.S. if we wanted to.
00:04:59.720And we need to be frank with the Americans that they will not get the kind of access that they seek to what's in Canada if this is how the conduct is going to go.
00:05:08.500It seems most premiers believe it's now time to use Canada's real bargaining power, energy.
00:05:14.620American refineries, specifically in the Midwest, rely on exported Albertan crude.
00:05:20.000But ask the leader of the oil-rich province, and it's a hard no.