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The European Union has offered to make Canada it's first "associate member" as Donald Trump's trade war with Canada escalates.
Andrew Marr is joined by Bill Blair, High Commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom, to dissect the potential alliance.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
Earlier today, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said he thought his country
0:04
becoming an associate member of the EU, would be a positive step. Here he is speaking to the European Parliament earlier today
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An alliance that builds resilience for what it allows us to do for our citizens
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and our citizens to do for themselves. An alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices
0:25
And speaking of dictating, it was an idea instantly dismissed by President Trump
0:31
Now, I think it's laughable. Look, the whole thing with Canada. Canada's been a terrible trade partner
0:38
And no, I don't see that. And if they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act
0:43
I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things
0:49
So if they do that, if Europe does that with a bad intention, if it's a good intention, that's fine
0:56
If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe. Well, let's talk to Canada's High Commissioner in London, Bill Blair
1:04
who was with both Mark Carney and our Prime Minister Andy Burnham yesterday
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What did he make of the conversation and the relationship between the two of them
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Let me share with you that when Prime Minister Carney asked me to come to Canada as Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
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We had a long conversation about how much he values the relationship with the United Kingdom
1:22
Of course, he's worked here himself. He's very committed to continuing to build upon that relationship
1:29
And I think it was reflected, as you can imagine, this week has been a rather busy one for our prime minister
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He held an economic summit in Toronto for the first two days of the week. He then made his way to Strasbourg and was sitting in the chamber next to President van der Leyen, which he delivered her address
1:44
He then got on a plane and flew back to the UK. and went for his meeting with the prime minister And I think it reflects how important that relationship is to our prime minister and to Canada And I hope it would be seen by the British people as reflective of our commitment to continue to build upon that relationship
2:05
as well as the outreach that we are undertaking in other parts of the world, including, of course, in the EU
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There's a strange kind of dance going on between Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Carney, between the EU and Canada
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it's almost the early stages of a serious flirt. And I guess the question is, how serious is this relationship going to be
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What would it mean for Canada to be an associate member? And again, the language of that, I think, could even be considered a little bit constraining
2:32
And one of the things our prime minister, first of all, we were deeply honoured and proud
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and appreciative when Wenderlein made that offer of deepening the relationship between
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the EU and Canada. But we also, the prime minister in his remarks today, articulated a number of areas that we wish to pursue
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And he's urged us to focus on the substantive elements of that relationship
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And then what we eventually call it, I think, will be more appropriate, reflective of the work that we're going to do together and the opportunities that that represents
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But at the same time, Canada is absolutely committed to diversifying our relationships around the world
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and we believe that our sovereignty is strengthened by partnership and working together with other like-minded nations
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that share our values and our interests. We believe Canada has much to offer in those relationships, but we also think that we've got a great deal to benefit
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So there is, I think, an important conversation. It began a number of years ago with the CETA, the trade negotiations that took place between Canada and the EU
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But we've been continuing to build on that. And we think that strengthening those bonds including strengthening the bonds with many of our other allies including very importantly the United Kingdom remains the right path forward for our country President Trump not surprisingly has laughed this aside dismissed it entirely
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Isn't the real problem the deteriorating relationship between Canada and Trump's America
4:02
Now, Andrew, respectfully, this isn't about America, quite honestly. This is about, frankly, Canada
4:07
And one of the things that I think our discussions with the United States and even some of the remarks of the president have done for Canada is that he has reminded us that we are patriots and we love our country
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But he's also reminded us that we had a responsibility to our own sovereignty, our security, and that we needed to do the work necessary
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And perhaps we've become complacent over decades. And we needed to do the work necessary to strengthen our own country and to assert our own sovereignty
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And that really does mean that we want to trade with who Canada wants to trade with and that we would, you know, we will defend our culture, our values, our place in the world
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And we're quite prepared to do that. You mentioned your culture and your values
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Couldn't it be argued that except for a slight blip of geography, as it were, Canada actually is a European country in terms of values, in terms of the mix of the people inside Canada, in terms of fundamental attitudes
5:05
I think it's been observed a number of times in the past that Canada is perhaps the most European of the non-European countries
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And we're clearly not part of the contiguous European continent. But at the same time, our origins are deeply rooted
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It has often been said that Canada became a nation in the battlefields of Vimy Ridge in 1917
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And so we trace our history back, clearly our relationship with our two founding nations France and Britain but Canada is a remarkably diverse country and people have come from all over the world and principally from Europe and over much of our history
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And so we do, I think, share very strong values and we are coming to learn that we are also
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sharing strong interests. Canada has, for example, fought in every major conflict that has involved Europe and we've
6:01
fought side by side with the UK, but with many other of our allies in Europe. We still believe
6:08
that that relationship is foundational to our country, but we don't think of ourselves as a
6:13
part of Europe, but certainly a strong ally and friend of Europe. And we believe that that
6:19
relationship can be really important to us. You've mentioned a couple of times fighting
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and defence. Is part of a closer relationship between Canada and the EU a kind of northern
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Defence Pact that covers Scandinavia, Greenland, the North, the Far North and Canada
6:34
In a previous role for our government, I was the Minister of National Defence and I've attended
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very many NATO meetings. And with what we've seen in the evolution of NATO just over the past
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number of years with a number of Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden, joining the NATO alliance
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we are strongly of the belief that, first of all, the High North and our Arctic are becoming
6:57
increasingly vulnerable as a result of climate change, advanced technology, some of the activities
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of our adversaries and their ambitions in that region, and that there is, I think, a shared
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responsibility with Europe and with America on ensuring that we maintain a secure environment
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There's also a huge opportunity there, and for Canada, a responsibility to build out our
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shared infrastructure and deepwater ports and create greater resiliency to assert our
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sovereignty in the Arctic. Hi, Commissioner, Mr Blair. Thank you very, very much for talking to LBC tonight
7:32
A real pleasure. Thank you, Andrew
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