“China dominates this sector at the moment, giving that country enormous leverage in its foreign policy strategies. Canada could steal a lot of this thunder.”

History does not suggest, nor do present events indicate, anything other than a long, friendly and mutually rewarding partnership between Canada and the United States. The relationship is strained, for sure. But we are interdependent and very likely to remain so despite the rhetoric emanating from Washington. The question on all our minds is how, and when, does this get resolved? These are legitimate questions, but the answers are impossible to know, at least today. Here is what we do know.

The latest posturing from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, chief negotiator on behalf of the American administration, is to the effect: “We want your potash, your oil and your critical minerals (once we figure out how to get them out of the ground), but we don’t want you assembling cars and trucks, we want you to get rid of supply-side restrictions in the dairy and poultry markets and we don’t want your steel.” This is, of course, an over-simplification of the argument but nonetheless accurate at a high level.

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