By Chris Beach

Northern View

The Northern View #56: Opportunities in the new Trump era

Feb 6, 2025 | 6:05 AM

Thankfully we gained a 30 day-reprieve from an all-out trade war with Donald Trump. The President says this is not about trade but about the border, but we should know by now what he says, thinks and ends up doing usually doesn’t match and is highly unpredictable.

This is in fact about trade in so far that it’s a steppingstone to increased US power, influence and wealth which Trump and his team believe is currently undervalued.

Just as China, Russia and Iran have been trying for years to knock U.S. hegemony down a few notches on the global stage, Trump wants to ratchet it up a few notches.

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The White House knows that many nations, like Canada and Mexico, need access to their market more than they need ours. Trump wants us to let more American goods in, like agricultural products, if we want to continue to trade south of the border.

He also believes Canada and much of the rest of the world has become dependent on the trillions of US dollars spent on defense for global peace and prosperity since World War Two… and on this point he arguably has a good case. Trudeau’s broken promises on military spending have left the Canadian Armed forces on life support.

But for obvious reasons in 2025, a much greater investment is needed for our own security, and it will also make us less dependent on the US in situations like we find ourselves in right now.

And perhaps most importantly, let’s learn from this and adapt, and get rid of all trade barriers in our own country so we can trade as easily with Alberta or Ontario as we can with Washington State.

Let’s get rid of the excessive red tape and bureaucracy around certifications so skilled Canadians can get a job anywhere in the nation without jumping through months of red tape. Let’s streamline our mining approval process so we can get a critical minerals’ mine approved in two years like Sweden does, and not the 15 years plus that it currently takes in BC.

And let’s start pivoting to Europe and Asia for trade because we have so many resources that they want, we need to start taking advantage of that as soon as possible. I’m Chris Beach and this is the Northern View.

Editors note: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of Pattison Media.