Canada – U.S. December 2025-

Pete Hoekstra says U.S. ‘does not need Canada’
U.S. Ambassador to Canada praised decades of economic integration, but said Canada’s action on trade, China and boycotts are setting the tone for CUSMA negotiations
(National Post) U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra delivered another blunt assessment of the Canada-U.S. relationship during a wide-ranging radio interview this week, saying the U.S “does not need Canada,” even as he praised the nations’ deep economic relationship.
Hoekstra, speaking with host Elias Makos on Montreal’s CJAD 800, defended recent rhetoric from President Donald Trump that the U.S. could easily replace Canadian-made products.
“The problem is, we don’t need their product. We don’t need cars made in Canada, we don’t need cars made in Mexico, we want to make them here,” Trump told reporters while visiting a Ford factory in Michigan on Tuesday.
“No, we don’t need Canada,” Hoekstra told Markos when pressed on Trump’s latest comment and similar ones he’s made about lumber, steel, energy and more.
He added, however, that businesses on both sides of the border have elected to integrate their supply chains under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its successor, the Canada-U.S-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), under which they’ve created “a tremendous amount of prosperity and wealth and a tremendous number of high-quality, high-paying jobs.”

2025

16 December
‘I really do believe I could help’: Conservative MP Jivani on restarting U.S. trade talks
In wide-ranging interview, Jamil Jivani discusses DEI, trade and Pierre Poilievre
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani says he’s ready to lend a hand and do what he can, if Prime Minister Mark Carney says he wants help restarting trade negotiations with the United States.
The MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North is a longtime friend and former Yale Law School classmate of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, though he says in recent months they haven’t talked much — except about their fantasy football team.
Jivani said the naming of a new ambassador following the planned departure of Kirsten Hillman may be a time when the Canadian government is reassessing its U.S. trade strategy — and if so, he would be willing to do whatever he can to improve the situation.

11 December
Trump administration won’t tear up CUSMA, says Canada’s ambassador to U.S.
Kirsten Hillman’s comments come after top U.S. negotiator floated separate deals with Canada, Mexico
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman, who also serves as Ottawa’s lead trade negotiator with Washington, says she hasn’t heard any indication from the Trump administration that it wants to change the fundamentals of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.

Carney says resigning Canadian ambassador to U.S. has done ‘a fantastic job’ (video)
Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the announcement that Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., will leave her post in the new year. Carney thanked Hillman for her work, saying she is ‘an exceptional public servant.’
Ambassador Hillman’s intelligence, determined action and diplomacy have contributed immensely to the advancement of a new economic and security relationship with the United States — and prepared the foundations for Canada in the upcoming review of CUSMA.
As one of the longest-serving Ambassadors to the United States in our history, her wide-ranging and constructive engagement with all branches of the U.S. Government as well as with leaders across America and Canada have yielded crucial results for Canadians.
Through a period of transformation in the relationship, Ambassador Hillman has resolutely defended Canadian values and interests, while promoting a stronger future for workers who depend on stable trade, families who count on a safe and secure border, and businesses navigating new global uncertainty.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s longtime ambassador to the U.S., is stepping down
Kirsten Hillman has been Canada’s permanent ambassador to the U.S. since 2020 and was named the lead negotiator for trade talks with the White House earlier this year.
“While there will never be a perfect time to leave, this is the right time to put a team in place that will see the [Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement] review through to its conclusion.”
Hillman represented Canada in Washington as ambassador, first in an acting role and then formally as of 2020, and was the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious posting.
The lawyer helped the former Liberal government negotiate the updated North American trade agreement — now known north of the border as CUSMA. The agreement enters its mandatory review period next year.

8 December
Trump’s National Security Strategy is hostile to Canada – and the democratic world
Kerry Buck, Canada’s former ambassador to NATO and a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa.
(Globe & Mail) Without much fanfare, the U.S. government has launched what could be a seismic shift in American foreign policy with its new National Security Strategy. And for Canada, the impact of the NSS could be profound.
We already know Donald Trump’s approach to relations with Canada has complicated our economic and security environment. But the NSS tries make coherent a foreign policy that, so far, has appeared to centre on the changing whims of the President – a vision that is inherently hostile to Canada and other allies in alarming ways.
The NSS views the Western Hemisphere (notably, not limited to Latin America) as a zone of exclusive U.S. economic and strategic influence. The U.S., it says, will “deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces… and to own or control strategically vital assets in our Hemisphere,” defining “strategically vital assets” broadly to include critical minerals, cyber communication networks and infrastructure, too. It makes U.S. alliances contingent on countries in the Hemisphere “winding down adversarial outside influence” and buying American.
How Trump’s new National Security Strategy targets Canadian sovereignty
(The Hub) The National Security Strategy issued by the Trump administration last Friday isn’t merely a restatement of “America First” principles; it is a codified assertion of unilateral American power within the Western Hemisphere, carrying serious implications for Canada.
The strategic heart of this declaration lies in the commitment to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine” in the Western Hemisphere. Although the doctrine’s historical association is with Latin American stability and stemming unwanted migration, its “Trump Corollary” expands the scope to explicitly include preventing “non-Hemispheric competitors” from controlling “strategically vital assets” and, crucially, ensuring America’s “continued access to key strategic locations.”
To execute this mandate in the North American Arctic—an area of rapidly intensifying geopolitical and economic competition—the Trump administration is creating the national security justification to take another step towards formalizing Canada’s satrap status, this time by forcing a permanent change in the status of the Northwest Passage.

24 November
US-Canada Trade Talks Frozen as Carney Weighs DC Trip Next Week
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
Trade talks between the US and Canada remain stalled, with key issues potentially being rolled into next year’s broader review of the North American trade accord.
US President Donald Trump halted negotiations after being angered by an advertising campaign sponsored by the government of Ontario, and there’s no plan to proceed with an additional 10% tariff on Canada in the immediate term.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has sought to strike trade and investment deals with other countries, with a long-term goal of doubling Canada’s non-US exports, after the United Arab Emirates committed to invest C$70 billion in Canada.
Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney may cross paths again next week. Initial planning work is underway for the Canadian leader to travel to Washington on Dec. 5 to attend the draw for the 2026 World Cup, according to people with knowledge of the event. The tournament is being co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.
If Carney does attend, it would put the two leaders in the same room for the first time since the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in South Korea in late October, when Carney apologized for the Ontario TV ad. But Carney may simply go just to attend the event itself, with no additional meetings on trade taking place, said one person familiar with the matter.
… In Trump’s view, “you’re a counterparty and this is a commercial negotiation,” he said. But the Canadian side has little choice but to try to reach some kind of trade truce with the US. “You can’t get emotional. You can’t give up.”
Carney’s economic strategy is built, in part, around trade diversification, but that’s more difficult for Canada than for almost any other country in the world. About three-quarters of its goods exports were shipped to US buyers last year, led by crude oil and energy products.

12 November
U of T hires three top U.S. scholars, announces $24-million recruitment plan
Mark Duggan, professor of economics at Stanford University, MIT economist Jacquelyn Pless and Canadian-born MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager.
(Globe & Mail) Three prominent U.S. scholars are moving to the University of Toronto, as the school embarks on a wave of talent attraction spurred in part by upheaval in the postsecondary sector in the United States.
The new hires include a husband-and-wife team of economists, Mark Duggan from Stanford University and Jacquelyn Pless from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Canadian-born astrophysicist Sara Seager, also currently at MIT.
At the same time, U of T is also announcing a $24-million plan to recruit top young scholars from around the world as well as funding to boost the early career trajectory of the university’s own researchers.
Concerns about Trump and Canada-U.S. relations on the rise again: Nanos poll
(CTV) … Nanos pointed to two significant events in recent weeks that are likely driving the rise in Canadians’ concerns on those issues: Ontario’s anti-tariff ad, and the federal budget.
The ad, paid for by the government of Ontario, features a clip of former Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan in a speech saying tariffs “hurt every American.”
In response to the ad — which played during two World Series games between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers — Trump announced he was terminating trade talks with Canada and imposing an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian goods. It remains unclear when those levies will come into effect.
The federal budget, meanwhile, largely hinges on increasing the Canadian economy’s resilience and reducing its dependence on the U.S. amid the ongoing trade war.
“Think of those two events as driving focus for Canadians on the Canada-U.S. relationship and what it means for the Canadian economy,” Nanos said.
U.S. predicted to lose $5.7 billion in tourism as Canadian boycott continues
‘Significantly fewer visits from Canada are the primary driver of this decrease,’ U.S. tourism group says of falling numbers