U.S. President Donald Trump is not our president, nor is he admired by a majority of Canadians. His use of tariffs to raise government revenues and promote domestic production have caused some pain for the Great White North. What is less heralded, but no less true, is that Trump prompted a wave of positive Canadian initiatives. Some of these were long overdue.
After Trump won the November 2024 election, he threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports unless they addressed illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Canada responded with a $1.3-billion border plan to detect and disrupt fentanyl. This included more RCMP officers and border personnel.
In February 2025, Canada announced it would designate organized-crime cartels having an impact in Canada as terrorist entities. This gave law enforcement new tools. Additionally, Canada created a Joint Operational Intelligence Cell to enable cooperation between Canada’s separated law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Canada’s drug seizures grew by 60 per cent in one year.
With free trade with the United States in jeopardy, Canada finally started to address the lack of free trade between Canadian provinces. An analysis by the International Monetary Fund estimated the effect was equivalent to a 21 per cent tariff on interprovincial trade. Their elimination would increase national economic output as much as $200 billion per year, or $5,100 per Canadian.
Ottawa did its part by passing the One Canadian Economy Act, effective July 1, 2025. It removed all 53 federal exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement and established a framework for eliminating federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility. The Free Trade and Labour Mobility Act came into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
Other barriers lie with the provinces. Ontario led by example and passed the Protect Ontario Through Free Trade Within Canada Act. Ontario subsequently signed agreements with virtually every province and territory, enabling an easier exchange of goods and labour. Some provinces have been slower to follow, especially Quebec, but hopeful progress is real and continues.
This new tone of interprovincial cooperation, combined with economic necessity, has also made pipelines more acceptable. A December 2025 Ipsos survey found that 75 per cent of Canadians support constructing new pipelines to British Columbia or Eastern Canadian ports. That’s a big improvement from the 61 percent of respondents the previous year.
The new political environment allowed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Prime Minister Mark Carney regarding a new oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. It also allowed Ontario Premier Doug Ford to stand happily beside Smith at the Calgary Stampede and announce their intentions to pursue a Northern Shield pipeline to connect Alberta oil to Sarnia refineries. Canada was too scared of carbon emissions to do this before. Now it’s too scared of Trump tariffs to refuse.
Although the U.S. still receives more than two-thirds of Canadian exports, Canada has reinvigorated attempts to pursue other markets. In 2025, exports to the U.S. fell by 3.7 per cent but surged by 11.1 per cent to other countries. Carney’s 2025 budget committed $6 billion over seven years to trade and transportation infrastructure to help that trend along. The noble goal is to double non-U.S. exports and generate $300 billion more in such exports over the next decade.
Trump has complained for years that other NATO countries have relied too heavily on the U.S. for their defence and not measured up to the two per cent of GDP target set by NATO. No country is guiltier of this than Canada, despite bordering three oceans and having the second-largest land mass in the world.
Finally, in 2025-26, Canada reached its NATO benchmark of spending two per cent of GDP on defence spending for the first time since the late 1980s. The $63 billion announced in Budget 2025 brought Canada up to the NATO standard five years earlier than scheduled. That budget also announced a total of $81.8 billion would be spent over five years to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces. Newly announced contracts for fighter jets, search-and-rescue aircraft, surveillance aircraft, helicopters, and destroyer ships represent a substantial renewal and upgrade.
Trump has never viewed Canada as an enemy, but he has let Canada suffer collateral damage to fulfill his vision of a renewed United States. Even so, his efforts to make America great again have prompted changes that make Canada better too. Finally, Canada’s years of apologizing for its past have given way to building a better future.
