OP-ED: Elbow to the face: What Canada risks by embracing economic nationalism

Peter Shawn Taylor writes, "The very fact Canadians today consider Trump’s tariffs to be an economic crisis reveal how important free trade with the Americans has become to Canada."

Author: Peter Shawn Taylor

There was free trade between Canada and the U.S. before there was a country called Canada. In 1854, 13 years before Confederation, the colonies of British North America signed a reciprocity agreement with the Americans that allowed for free trade in lumber, meat, grains, coal, pitch and tar and other basic goods. This quickly l…