Canada and the World, Ep. 4: A Bumpy Road Ahead for Canada and the United States

As Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, and her negotiating team meet around the clock with their counterparts in Washington in an attempt to move forward on a new NAFTA deal, this week’s episode takes a step back to ask a few questions on the state of Canada-US relations: How has Donald Trump’s presidency impacted trade and environmental policy? Is Canada’s so-called ‘doughnut’ strategy — reaching out beyond Trump to find other US allies — working? What has policy uncertainty meant for Canada’s business community? And how does this era measure up against past stages of Canada-US relations?

Host Bessma Momani sat down with a few Canada-US experts late last week — before progress between the US and Mexico on the auto sector had been announced — to discuss the state of relations and where things go from here.

Our host

Bessma Momani is professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. She’s also a non-resident senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and a Fulbright Scholar. She has been non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and a 2015 Fellow at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She’s a frequent analyst and expert on international affairs in Canadian and global media. 

This week’s guests

Patricia Goff is associate professor of the department of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont. She specializes in international political economy, international relations theory, and international organization, with a particular interest in trade, intellectual property, and the cultural capacity of international organizations.

Debora L. VanNijnatten is professor in the department of political science and North American studies, also at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Her research and publications have focused on transboundary environmental governance in North America, at the cross-border regional, bilateral (Canada-US and US-Mexico) and continental levels. Recent projects have focused on capacity-building for transboundary water and climate governance and the operation of “transgovernmental” networks in the continental context.

Garry Keller is vice president of StrategyCorp and former chief of staff to John Baird, former Canadian foreign minister. He has also served as government House leader, chief government whip, director of communications to the minister of the environment, director of parliamentary affairs to the president of the Treasury Board, and legislative assistant to the chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Canada and The World is produced and edited by Matthew Markudis. Each episode is available for download (below) and can also be found on iTunes and other podcast applications.