As was made abundantly clear over the four years of the Trump presidency, Canada’s most important bilateral relationship is much bigger than the whims or even the tweets of a single individual, even when that individual is president of the United States. Veteran diplomat Colin Robertson describes the vast, cross-border infrastructure of interactions that undergirds our public bilateral diplomacy.

Colin Robertson

“We need a thousand points of contact” then-Ambassador Frank McKenna used to remind us when I worked at the Canadian embassy in Washington. For us, this meant the daily transactions among our civil servants, security and intelligence, law enforcement and the military. While we liked to think we understood the big picture, the details of our deeply integrated and complex relationship were left to the experts. In that sense, our splendid chancery on Pennsylvania Avenue is the tip of an iceberg—the visible symbol of a bilateral relationship whose weight and activity are mostly beneath the surface. 

McKenna, because he had served a decade as New Brunswick’s premier, understood that while the “tone at the top” as Brian Mulroney described relations between prime ministers and presidents, and the classically “official” dealings between ministers, elected officials and public servants are essential, what makes the Canada-US relationship unique is the daily contacts on myriad and mostly unrecorded levels between Canadians and Americans. These relationships—premiers and governors, legislators, business, labour, and civil society—constitute the hidden wiring of our remarkably successful relationship.

North America includes three countries: Canada, the United States, and Mexico. But all three are federations sharing powers between different levels of government. For Canada and the United States, the relationship is “intermestic”—with the “domestic” mattering at least as much in our daily transactions as the international. So, another way to look at North America is through the relationships, both bilateral and regional, among the 50 American and 32 Mexican states and the 13 Canadian provinces and territories. 

With more than 80 percent of our three countries’ people being urban-dwellers, according to the World Bank, city-to-city relationships are now commonplace. Coupled with business, labour and civil society, these cross-border connections also constitute the hidden wiring of the continental relationship. This bilateral infrastructure is especially profound between Canada and the United States.  

The hidden wiring operates both in tandem with and independently of the national governments. While the national governments and their ambassadors set the framework for the all-important trade and investment relationships, it is the provinces, states and cities, working with business, that put the deals together. Sometimes they can even get things done that the national governments cannot. 

When Donald Trump proved to be a volatile and unpredictable interlocutor even before his inauguration in 2017, the government of Justin Trudeau adopted a strategy of decentralized diplomacy that relied heavily on the hidden wiring to ensure that both the key NAFTA renegotiation and the larger bilateral relationship were protected. With the election of Joe Biden came a new Roadmap that restores conventional bilateral diplomacy at the highest levels within a far more predictable dynamic. 

Another good example is the 2010 Canada-US Government Procurement agreement. With the passage of the Obama administration’s nearly trillion-dollar stimulus package in 2009, most of the infrastructure spending was delegated to states. The national governments’ agreements did not include sub-state procurement access so Prime Minister Stephen Harper turned to the premiers. Jean Charest of Quebec and then Brad Wall of Saskatchewan, as successive chairs of the Council of the Federation, took up the challenge. In meetings with their governor counterparts, including at their annual Washington governors’ conference, the provinces, territories and 37 states agreed to a reciprocity procurement arrangement giving their vendors the right to bid on contracts and exempting them from Buy American requirements. 

This approach could well work again with the trillion-dollar Biden infrastructure and jobs programs to “Build Back Better”. We need to find some way to get around President Biden’s “Buy American” executive order.  

Even with the new NAFTA, there is still work to be done in making North America more competitive. Fortunately, the new agreement contains a chapter providing for a Competitiveness Committee. There are over 20 permanent working groups looking to keep the agreement evergreen and stimulating further improvements. It’s a reflection of our deep economic integration. Supply chain dynamics, for example, are, increasingly, less about border tariffs and more about standards and zoning approvals that are set and administered at the state and city level. 

As Trade Minister Mary Ng told US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Mexican Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier at the first Free Trade Commission meeting under the revised NAFTA in mid-May, our “trade relationship is built on long-established, deeply integrated supply chains—networks of workers and businesses that aren’t just selling to each other, but innovating and building together.” While governments can frame this remarkable synergy, what binds it together are business and labour. 

Prior to the pandemic, a good percentage of the 400,000 people crossing the Canada-US border every day were engaged in commerce; sustaining and growing the daily flow of components that in the case of our most traded commodity—autos and trucks—criss-cross the border an average of seven times before final assembly on one side or the other. The companies, whether assembly or parts providers, each have cross-border operations. Our industry associations—the Business Council of Canada and the US Business Round Table, or the Canadian and US Chambers of Commerce all have regular conversations and when their national governments are at odds or, as is more likely, unable to make up their minds, collaborate and advocate for a common goal because for business, bilateral relations are about stability and predictability.

Vital on the US side is the role of labour, a key component in the Democratic party coalition. The successful re-negotiation of NAFTA, especially in the congressional end game with strengthened labour and environmental provisions—a Canadian objective—depended on the union movement. So did the agreement to exempt Canada from Buy American in the 2010 procurement agreement and the ultimate relief from President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The labour-to-labor relationships between our unions employing our auto and steel workers were instrumental in sealing these deals. The building trades are especially close—indeed, the Canadians in the United Steelworkers are part of the largest private sector union in both Canada and North America. So too are Canadian firefighters, seafarers and other building trades unions. For many years a Canadian, Leo Gerard, was president of the United Steelworkers. Gary Doer, the former Manitoba premier who served as a union president before going into politics, worked assiduously to cultivate these cross-border ties during his time both as premier and as ambassador to the United States. Doer continues to be vocal in reminding us to use our labour-to-labour relationships. 

The six New England governors and five Eastern Canadian premiers have met annually since 1973, with a focus on cross-border trade but to also work on shared objectives including energy, climate and the environment. Western premiers and governors also join one another at their respective annual conferences and in 2000 formalized the arrangement to resolve frictions and build collaboration. The Great Lakes governors and premiers have also met since the early 1980s with a focus on the environmental stewardship of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. 

The Council of State Governments, founded in 1933 and based in Lexington, Kentucky with its regional components—CSG East, CSG Midwest, CSG South and CSG West—regularly includes Canadian legislators in its deliberations and have occasionally met in Canada. They focus on problem-solving on the basics of water, the environment and climate, agriculture, energy and border issues. The Midwest region has had since 1991 a sustained Midwest-Canada relations committee, with provincial legislators from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. 

While the state and provincial leaders are the catalyst for the meetings, in each of these regional legislator-focused forums there is participation from business, labour and civil society. Their work is complemented by other associations, notably the Pacific North West Economic Region (PNWER) and NASCO—North American Strategy for Competitiveness—and the Canadian American Business Council (CABC). 

PNWER, with its current focus including ‘a Road Map to Pandemic Resilience’ and a ‘Solutions Accelerator’ to re-open tourism, is aptly described as setting the ‘gold standard’ in its practical promotion of cross-border collaboration. NASCO’s focus is North American, working on unlocking supply-chain chokepoints in regulation as well those afflicting our roads, rail and ports. Established in 1987 during the negotiation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, the Canadian American Business Council (CABC) is first among equals in cross-border private sector affairs. 

Through their active engagement on emerging issues, with legislators and the executive branches of the various levels of government, PNWER, NASCO and CABC facilitate and reinforce North American growth.  

When he was US ambassador, David Jacobson would observe that “Canadians think they know all about the United States while Americans think they know all they need to know about Canadians.” He would pause and then add “we are both wrong.” Jacobson is right, and while the Centre for the Study of the United States (CSUS) at the Munk School provides insight and scholarship on the relationship, we need more space for such analysis. Washington has the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, funded by Congress. Its Canada and Mexico institutes are world class. So, too, is the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF), which gathers the policy leadership—elected, activists, scholars and flag officers—of the democracies for invaluable annual discussions.

Complementing the hidden wiring is the work of our 12 regional consulate-generals. Trade and commerce are their main focus and their efforts are supplemented by honorary consuls, of which the model for emulation would be Glenn Williamson in Arizona. Williamson is also Founder of the Canada Arizona Business Council, which over its now- nearly 20 years in operation has enabled a tremendous growth in Canada-Arizona trade and investment through its support for direct flights (from two a week to over 100 prior to the pandemic) and the presence today of over 500 Canadian businesses making Canada the biggest foreign employer in the state.  

Just as all politics is local, so is all trade and given Canadian interests and the omnipresent “Buy American” sentiment, our consulates and honorary consuls play a vital role in identifying and then pushing back on protectionism both legislative or regulatory. From my time in Washington leading our advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill, I concluded that by the time a protectionist measure reached Washington we were into mitigation—firefighting—with limited success. Protectionism is best dealt with at the local level and this is where our consuls and honorary consuls play the vital role in demonstrating to local legislators that for most states, their main export market is Canada and that Canadian investment (most have no idea) generates nine million American jobs. 

Serving in the US requires a different diplomatic skill set. The traditional diplomatic approach of self-effacement and closed-door parleys that characterize the rest of the world don’t work well in the cacophonous, multi-dimensional and confused arena that characterizes American politics. 

In the US, we need to play the game like Americans. As Frank McKenna would tell us,“You don’t bring a Boy Scout knife to a gunfight.” American politics is in your face, public and personal, and we need to use lobbyists and lawyers as well as diplomats. 

Our diplomats need to be advocates, skilled in public diplomacy. We have adjusted with more “political” appointees from politics, business associations, media and entertainment as our consuls general. With a few notable exceptions, it has worked very well for Canada and we should probably appoint more junior diplomats drawing from these backgrounds. 

We should also look to “second” more provincial officials. Quebec, Ontarioand Alberta have representation in Washington and Quebec has long maintained offices in US cities—seven in addition to Washington. While the focus is trade and investment, they also promote cultural and academic relationships that complement the work of our consular teams. 

When I was consul general in Los Angeles, I worked closely with my Quebec counterpart, Marc Boucher, in support of our joint campaign to secure the votes from the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that resulted in Canada’s first (and thus far only) Oscar for Best Foreign Language film: Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions Barbares in 2004. Together we mobilized the Canadian entertainment community, including performances by Cirque de Soleil at our events, which included poutine washed down with La Fin du Monde craft beer.

As our border begins to reopen after 18 months of closure to all but essential traffic, the hidden wiring must be reinvigorated. It is the underreported but essential foundation for our unique Canada-US relationship. But because that relationship will always be asymmetrical, with the US mattering more to Canada, leadership in governments, business, labour and civil society need to take the lead. Protectionism is as American as apple pie but, as Leo Gerard understood, Canadians and Americans should be working together when it comes to extending labour and environmental protection. 

In the wake of the pandemic, armed with our joint Roadmap and renegotiated NAFTA, we can take the Canada-US partnership to a new level. In these initiatives, relationships will matter more than ever and this is where the “hidden wiring” makes all the difference. 

Contributing Writer Colin Robertson is a longtime senior Canadian diplomat who served as Consul General in Los Angeles and as first head of the Advocacy Secretariat at the Canadian embassy in Washington. He is vice president and fellow at the Canadian Global affairs Institute in Ottawa.