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What Americans and Canadians agree — and disagree — on
Americans like to think: "Canadians are just like us." But many Canadians don't feel the same way about Americans.
Still, Americans and Canadians do mostly agree on a lot of things, as we know from recently polling by Maru Public Opinion for GZERO North.
What do Americans and Canadians find the most and least common ground on? Maru executive VP John Wright digs into the data from the survey in a conversation with GZERO's Tony Maciulis at a US-Canada Summit in Toronto.
For more, sign up for GZERO North, the new weekly newsletter that gives you an insider’s guide to the world’s most important and under-covered trading relationship, US and Canada.
Who's to blame for sky-high food prices?
More than a year after Russia's war in Ukraine, have we turned from not enough food to more expensive food for all? How is this having different impacts in the developed and developing world?
Who's to blame for food inflation? And can the US and Canada do something to make food more available and affordable for the rest of the world?
At a US-Canada summit, GZERO's Tony Maciulis caught up with Ertharin Cousin, who knows a thing or two about this stuff as CEO of Food Systems for the Future and former head the UN World Food Programme.
For more, sign up for GZERO North, the new weekly newsletter that gives you an insider’s guide to the world’s most important and under-covered trading relationship, US and Canada.
- Global food crisis: when food isn't merely expensive ›
- If we don't act fast to help smallholder farmers, developing world might soon run low on food ›
- Podcast: The Ukraine war is crippling the world's food supply, says food security expert Ertharin Cousin ›
- How Russia's war is starving the world: food expert Ertharin Cousin ›
Canada has lower risk appetite than the US, says think tank chief
At the US-Canada Summit in Toronto, GZERO's Tony Maciulis asks Chris Sands, head of the Wilson Center's Canada Institute, for his biggest takeaway from the recent meeting between US President Joe Biden and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
Sands also has some thoughts on the most pressing issues in the US-Canada relationship, especially migration. And he offers his take on why one-third of Canadians now think that bilateral ties are getting worse.
Finally, do Canadians care about former US President Donald Trump getting indicted?
For more, sign up for GZERO North, the new weekly newsletter that gives you an insider’s guide to the world’s most important and under-covered trading relationship, US and Canada.
Trudeau lays out plan to grow Canada’s clean economy
On the heels of his recent meeting with US President Joe Biden in Ottawa, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau took to the stage at the US-Canada Summit in Toronto on Tuesday to woo Bay Street — Canada’s version of Wall Street — and voters with a clear message: The future is bright for Canadian (green) businesses and workers.
Referring to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which been a source of friction over fears it’ll see investment flee south of the border, as a historic investment to fight climate change, Trudeau spotlighted his own plan to invest in the clean-energy economy.
The PM hopes that the Canada Growth Fund, a new $15 billion investment vehicle announced in last week’s budget, will help scale the clean-tech companies that might otherwise have moved to the US owing to IRA-linked subsidies. This, combined with billions in foreign direct investment, he said, will help “Canadian workers and Canadian industry stay competitive.”
Trudeau’s plan will also ensure that Canada offers a reliable supply chain feeding the US trading partnership. “Global economies are seeking stable trading partners and reliable supply chains in the face of geopolitical uncertainty,” he said.
The PM acknowledged that globalization has failed to deliver increased wealth for all, resulting in disillusioned masses who remain skeptical of the establishment. Political forces today, he warned, are trying to leverage this economic pain, promoting isolationism and dangerously sewing distrust.
“Profits only come when people are doing well,” he said.
Whether he can deliver on pledges to improve Canadian competitiveness will be up to voters to decide. Trudeau must face the electorate before Oct. 2025.
Trudeau spoke at a US-Canada summit in Toronto co-organized by Eurasia Group and BMO, a top Canadian bank. The event brought together government and business delegates from the two countries to talk issues like US-Canada politics, trade, tech innovation, security, energy, and climate change. Among the guests were US Sen. Chris Coons, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Ambassadors Kirsten Hillman and David Cohen.
- Testing Trudeau's star power ›
- US green subsidies pushback to dominate Biden's Canada trip ›
- Buddy Biden and budget: Enough to boost Trudeau? ›
- Biden-Trudeau talks focus on immigration and defense ›
- Inflation Reduction Act will lower energy costs & bring back jobs, says US energy secretary ›
- Podcast: How healthy is the US-Canada relationship? - GZERO Media ›
- India-Canada standoff heats up while US seeks a compromise - GZERO Media ›
Jane Harman: Trump trial a distraction away from urgent global crises
GZERO caught up with former US Rep. Jane Harman at the US-Canada Summit in Toronto, hosted by the Eurasia Group and BMO Financial Group.
She shares her thoughts on why Donald Trump's trial in New York helps the former US president politically, and why Finland joining NATO is good for the Finns — and the West.
Harman also weighs in on why the US and Canada are still unprepared for all cybersecurity threats, and the big global problem Washington and Ottawa should try to solve together right now.
Asylum-seekers board a bus after crossing into Canada from the US in Champlain, New York.
What We’re Watching: Border clampdown, Haiti’s hellish choices
Crackdown at Roxham Road
While the great and the good were celebrating the progressive partnership between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau at a glamorous Ottawa state dinner with yellowfin tuna and Alberta beef, Mounties were shutting down the irregular border crossing at Roxham Road, south of Montreal.
This delighted Quebec Premier François Legault but came as a shock to the desperate migrants who were en route to the crossing when the news broke. The sad and difficult stories of desperate migrants — fleeing war, crime, poverty, and repression — were not shared at the dinner where Canadians feted Biden. The quid pro quo for Biden’s help was a Canadian agreement to accept 15,000 migrants from the Caribbean and Central America.
Yet, closing the irregular border crossing at Roxham Road will likely have a negligible impact. Even if the move initially slows the influx, smugglers will find other routes — which could be more perilous. In fact, eight migrants died late last week in an attempt to cross the St. Lawrence River from Canada to the US.
One striking thing about the announcement was that nobody got wind of it until the day before. The governments had reached a deal in the spring of 2022 but succeeded in keeping it quiet until the last minute, apparently out of a desire to make sure migrants didn’t make a rush for the border.
Terrible choices for Haiti
In the leadup to Biden’s visit, the US repeatedlysignaled that it would like Canada to play a leadership role in a military intervention to bring order to chaotic, hellish Haiti, both for humanitarian reasons and to slow the flow of migrants to both Canada and the US. Nobody thought Canada would send in peacekeepers.
Indeed, Trudeau did not agree to send troops, and Biden said he wasn’t disappointed, but both leaders promised to keep working on the problem.
Perhaps Brazil could return to stop the gangs from terrorizing the population, former president of the World Peace Foundation Robert Rotberg argues, after which Canadians, and especially Canadians from the Haitian diaspora, could play a central role in reconstructing a government.__________
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Migrants wait to cross into Canada at Roxham Road, an unofficial crossing point from New York state to Quebec for asylum-seekers.
Will US-Canada border deal mean riskier future for migrants?
It had been nearly seven years since a US presidential visit to Canada when Joe Biden arrived in Ottawa last Thursday. President Donald Trump came by in 2018 for the G-7 summit, but it’s not the same as a dedicated stop.
As these things usually go, Biden’s visit was cast as part politics, part policy.
Would it help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, lower in the polls than he’d prefer and surely thinking about an election that is due by Oct. 2025 but could arrive sooner? Would it help Biden, who comes from a country where presidential elections run 24/7/365? Would anything meaningful come from all the banners and speeches and flags and handshakes?
On the eve of Biden’s arrival, news started to leak about a border deal — an agreement that was announced on Friday. The amendment to the Safe Third Country Agreement will see Canada officially accept 15,000 asylum-seekers from the Western hemisphere under a new refugee program while gaining the right to send back migrants who attempt to enter the country through unofficial crossings within 14 days of intercepting them.
More details are to come, including who the 15,000 will be, where they will be drawn from and how they will enter Canada. There is also more to come on precisely how the 14-day interception period will work, although those who cross irregularly and are not apprehended within that window may apply for asylum and have their case heard by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
New deal, a long time coming, closes loophole
For years, the two sides have wrangled over irregular crossings, which were not covered in the STCA back in 2002-2004 for reasons that aren’t exactly clear. This “loophole” made asylum-seekers the responsibility of whichever country they crossed into through unofficial points of entry, a challenge that the U.S. didn’t mind shifting onto their northern neighbor as many claimants crossed into Canada across its border.
In 2022, Canada saw nearly 40,000 people arrive at these unofficial border spots, asylum-seekers who, had they crossed at official points of entry, would have been turned around and sent back to the United States under the terms of the agreement.
But as the issue became more of a problem for the United States – over 100,000 migrant encounters from Canada were reported by US Homeland Security officials last year – the Biden administration warmed up to the idea of amending the agreement.
Migrants now face even more risks
The new Trudeau-Biden agreement took effect immediately. No notice. No grace period. As Verity Stevenson reported for CBC, migrants were stunned and heartbroken.
Migration advocates and experts warn the amendment will drive asylum-seekers underground, which may lead to increased deaths. Moreover, it may not solve the crisis at the border, which is a significant but small part of a much deeper and growing catastrophe worldwide: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that more than 117 million people will be displaced in 2023. What does that conclusion say about the deal?
Christina Clark-Kazak, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa and migration expert, says the approach is unproven. Indeed, she says the deal is “part of a trend of rich countries ensuring that asylum-seekers never get to their borders, so they never have to deal with them.” Instead, governments prefer to pick and choose their claimants from a distance.
Whether the deal is good policy will be determined by outcomes, but the forecast is a bit grim: People are still going to come, and their journey will become riskier.
A mix of public policy and politics
The whole thing is political — and politics. The Roxham Road crossing between New York state and Quebec has seen the lion’s share of irregular crossings. Quebec Premier François Legault said he was “happy” with the deal and called it a “very good victory,” citing his province’s inability to process and settle claimants who entered at Roxham.
The STCA amendment is a political win for Trudeau, at least for now. It’s particularly important for what it may do for his party’s fortunes in Quebec, where the future of the Liberal government will be determined.
Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center, says there’s a sound political logic to the deal. Canada will be alleviating some of the pressure on the U.S. border with its acceptance of 15,000 asylum-seekers while closing unofficial crossings, which may play well for the Liberals and the Democrats with their voters. As noted, there will also be fewer migrants coming into the United States through Canada after years of increased north-south crossings.
“We both get things that will help our current leaders with elections,” Sands says. This is a critical point to understand the machinations of the deal, which could serve as a model for the US-Mexico border, too — a much bigger challenge for Biden and U.S. policymakers. Given that, this deal could be “a reasonable plan that buys Biden time and takes the pressure off,” he adds.
Moreover, Biden may be thinking that Trudeau is his best bet for a workable deal, Sands notes, as there’s no guarantee the Liberal prime minister will still be the country’s head of government in a few years. For the Canadian side, Trudeau might be thinking the same thing, staring down a possible DeSantis or Trump redux administration.
Do as we say, not as we do?
Whatever the case, Clark-Kazak warns that the change to the STCA may further undermine Canadian, and by implication US, standing abroad. “We can’t go to a country like Pakistan and say, ‘You must continue to accept hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Afghans because you have a moral obligation to do so’ and in the meantime, we’re closing our borders,” she says.
The border deal is the marquee story of Biden’s visit to Canada. The STCA amendment may be good politics. But it may backfire. Whether it’s good policy will be determined in the months and years to come. And the devil will be in the details. In the meantime, there are plenty of reasons for concern despite two days of toasts and pats on the back.
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