Being dependent on U.S. trade ‘too dangerous a situation for us’: Liberal MP on Canadian exports

News Anchor: And joining me now is Liberal MP Anthony House Father, uh, Mr. House. Father, thank you very much for being here this evening. We appreciate your time tonight. Now, Trump has paused tariffs yet again. What does this tell you about his true intentions behind them?

Andrew Housefather: I don’t think anybody could possibly guess what Donald Trump’s true intentions are at this point.

I mean, originally it was Fentanyl, then it was the banks, then it was the trade deficit the United States had with us. Uh, overall, he keeps repeating that he wants us to be the 51st state. I mean, at this point, trying to get into Donald Trump’s head. It is probably an elusive goal. Uh, I do think there probably is some desire that he has, like the Prime Minister had stated to cripple our economy and have us be forced to be the 51st state.

But I don’t think, of course, Canadians would ever accept that. And I also don’t think the vast majority of Americans, including Republicans, would want him to go that far. So I, I think he’s being restrained at this point and, and, and trying to get into in his head. I, I, I, I don’t, I don’t think we can even, even imagine how to do that.

News Anchor: What can the government realistically do in this extra month?

Andrew Housefather: I mean, I think what we need to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve gotta be firm, we’ve gotta be resolute. We’ve gotta accept the fact that we need to perhaps accept some pain for long-term gain. We need to keep making allies in the United States in terms of the business community, the labor community and Congress, um, and getting Trump’s own allies to push him to drop this idea, not for 30 days, but permanently.

Um, and at the same point in time, Canadians I think have recognized we need to get rid of interprovincial trade barriers and we need to use all of the, uh, free trade agreements we’ve negotiated over the last many years to start exporting more of our goods to more markets than just the United States.

We cannot be dependent and export more than 70% of goods to the United States. It were too, it’s too dangerous a situation for us.

News Anchor: Now let’s talk about the liberal leadership race. They, uh, the liberals will be getting a new leader. Trudeau will be stepping down. Do you think whoever has chosen as the new leader will be able to bridge the gap and carry forward what has already been put in place?

I.

Andrew Housefather: I do, uh, I think that all of the candidates running are going to be excellent in terms of who wins in terms of this issue. I mean, this is Christa Friedland’s bread and butter as she was the trade minister. She was the foreign affairs minister. She knows how to negotiate with the United States. Um, I think Mark McCarney has a long history in finance, and this is his bread and butter as well.

And. And Corina has been in cabinet a long time. Frank has been a businessman. I, whoever wins, I think Will, will do a very good job. And I think the main thing is we need to be the adult in the room. We’re not gonna defeat Trump by mimicking Trump, by insulting everybody, by threatening everybody, by being nasty and crude.

We need to be the adult in the room and negotiate. With calm, with composure, um, and show real leadership in Canada. Um, it’s not gonna be tri slogans that will win this battle. It’ll be, um, you know, a calm measured leadership that focuses on how we can, if we have to do tariffs, do them in a measured way that, that, that yields the results we want, which is for Trump to drop all the tariffs.

And that’s why it’s so important that we didn’t back down, that we left the first round of tariffs that are focused on Republican states, um, and allies of Trump in place right now.

News Anchor: That is our time. Mr. House Father will have to leave it there. Thank you very much for being here with us tonight in the program.

We appreciate your time.

Andrew Housefather: Thank you so much for having me.

Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/video/2025/03/07/being-dependent-on-us-trade-too-dangerous-a-situation-for-us-liberal-mp-on-canadian-exports/