Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s trade pressure has become too deferential and needs a broader economic strategy that gives Atlantic Canada a larger role, a Canadian trade scholar told an audience at Mount Allison University Tuesday night.

Noah Fry, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, argued that Canada is more vulnerable to the United States during Donald Trump’s second presidency, partly because the Canadian response is less coordinated than it was during the first.

“Our trade strategy has become increasingly deferential to the United States, potentially to our demise,” he said.

Fry, who grew up in Moncton and graduated from Mount Allison in 2019, researches Canada–U.S. trade relations. His lecture drew on interviews with Canadian and American trade officials, labour activists, auto workers and others involved in the negotiations that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He contrasted the Trudeau government’s original “Team Canada” approach with the response now being pursued by Prime Minister Carney.

During the first Trump presidency, federal officials worked with provincial premiers, businesses and unions to build support inside the United States for maintaining trade with Canada, Fry said.

“But now, we have new fractures present in Team Canada that we did not have previously,” he said referring, among other things, to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s inflaming of separatists in her province and the election of an openly separatist government in Quebec.

“You have unions now saying that we are giving too many concessions and then on the other side, you have business associations saying that we should be giving more concessions and getting a deal,” he said.

Canadian strategy

Dr. Noah Fry

Fry suggested Canada’s counter tariffs might help stir some American opposition to Trump’s policies in the U.S. midterm elections, but argued Canada needs to focus more seriously on finding new trading partners and developing a more effective industrial strategy of its own.

He argued that the Carney economic agenda places too much emphasis on western energy and resource extraction including the new Pacific Link pipeline.

“We’re going to spend $44 billion from public coffers to support the Pacific Link,” he said, but questioned the argument that it would diversify Canada’s trade and open up Asian markets.

“China’s oil demand has already peaked, and there is no real confirmation that there is demand for our oil in China, for example. That’s part of the reason why there aren’t private sector proponents coming forward,” he said, adding that oil from the new pipeline may end up going to California.

Atlantic Canada investment

Fry called for greater emphasis on Atlantic Canada’s economic future.

“I would like to see a lot more engagement with the East in terms of envisioning what our industries will look like,” he said.

Atlantic Canada’s proximity to Europe should make it an important part of efforts to expand trade with the European Union, he argued.

“What are we going to offer the European Union? We have lobster for sure. We have blueberries. But ideally, we move beyond agricultural industries into manufacturing.,” he said.

“Maybe we need our $44 billion investment here in Atlantic Canada,” he said.

“I’d love to see some premiers start to kick up a storm.”

Later during an interview, Fry said developing Atlantic Canada’s ports to facilitate trade would be one place to start as well as more investment here in the defence sector.

“I think Atlantic Canada can play a role in energy, clean energy specifically, that we could provide to different markets,” he added.

When asked if he’s optimistic that Canada can weather the Trump trade storm, Fry said he has no doubt that the country will succeed.

“Canadian people are willing to fight. Consumers have made their choice in terms of buying Canadian. They want to support local industry,” he said.

“They want a government that does the same. So I think the long-term arc bends towards providing local supports. It’s just arriving there sooner rather than later,” he added.

“That’s the concern for me.”