(Ottawa) Chrystia Freeland reaches out to our neighbors to the South in an open letter published Monday in the Washington Postthe day Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States. The former Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister who hopes to succeed Justin Trudeau at the head of the Liberal Party of Canada (PLC) also warns them: “threats will not work”.
Posted at 10:29 a.m.
“We will not make the situation worse, but we will not back down,” she wrote. If you hit us, we will hit back – and our blows will be precisely aimed. »
“We may be smaller than you, but the stakes for us are infinitely higher. Do not doubt our determination, she continues. Loyalty only works if it is reciprocal. »
The liberal tenor presents himself in the leadership race as the best person to lead the battle against the threat of a tariff war from the new American president. Since November, Mr. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian imports and tirelessly repeats that Canada should become the 51ste State of the United States and said he wanted to use “economic force” to annex it.
“We are happy to have you as neighbors, but we have no interest in joining you. Canadians are proud and independent,” she says.
Mme Freeland explains that Canada shares several qualities with the Americans: the entrepreneurial spirit, the love of freedom, its embrace of change, but that it also has a universal public health care system, $10 daycares, legislation on gun control and abortion rights.
“We are proud to be a bilingual country, which includes the distinct society of Quebec, the only majority French-speaking jurisdiction in North America,” she adds. Canada is also “determined to reconcile with indigenous peoples” and believes in “a multicultural society rather than a melting pot » American style.
-“We are not asking you to be Canadian, but we do expect you to respect who we are and our long friendship with the United States,” she wrote.
Mme Freeland argues that the new US administration is attacking trade with Canada, “its biggest customer — bigger than China, Japan, Britain and France combined” because Canada “is only ‘a pawn on her geopolitical chessboard’ and that she wants to ‘humiliate her friends’ before attacking her real adversaries.
She argues that Canada is not trying to reduce wages in the United States by adopting low environmental standards and that it is meeting its energy needs. She also rejects the idea that there is a security imbalance as Mr. Trump has claimed.
“America has prospered in large part because of the security that comes from having a stable, friendly, and prosperous neighbor along its vast northern border. Imagine how different the American century would have been if you had had to spend time and money protecting yourself against a threat from the North,” she says.
The words of former Republican President Ronald Reagan are “truer than ever,” she emphasizes. “The fact is that ‘we are more than friends and neighbors and allies, we are kin and have together built the most productive relationship between two countries in the world.’ »
She invites the United States to work with Canada, which can provide it with the critical minerals it needs for its new technologies and the energy necessary to develop the artificial intelligence industry as well as strengthen the security of the northern continent. -American by investing in Arctic defense and helping stop China’s unfair trade practices.
“If you choose to treat us as an adversary, we will find friends who know everything we have to offer,” she warns.
