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Canadians should ask their government for a ‘wish-list’ as it opens relations with incoming American president Joe Biden and his administration if we wish to salvage our relations and restore goodwill.
A restart with Washington should ask for the following points, since our relationship with America is more perilous to our survival than theirs.
Such a list might look like this:
• The restoration of U.S.-Canada relations to resemble the amicable periods under presidents Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.
• Enhancing the USMCA trade agreement to eliminate tariffs imposed by the Trump government on Canadian metals and increase U.S access for our dairy and agricultural products.
• Convincing the incoming administration to not kill the Keystone XL Pipeline that will ship 800 million barrels of crude to U.S refineries and lessen our mutual dependence on hostile oil dictatorships.
• Improve and restore joint participation in UN Climate Change Agreements and reduce carbon emissions and industrial enterprises polluting entire ecosystems.
• Establish a joint-led international coalition to boycott China and counter its hostile actions on a global scale while working to end the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities.
• A mutual promise to share COVID-19 vaccines for mass distribution to the general public.
• A bid for new generation military equipment to quicken procurement and rearming.
These points would enable Canada to function at a competent level internationally and smooth over rough patches created by former President Trump’s volatility and PM Justin Trudeau’s ineptitude.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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