Article content

Canada is hosting the leaders of six other great democracies this weekend for the 2018 G7 summit outside Quebec City. It is expected to be unusually testy this year, with U.S. President Donald Trump standing apart from his allies on the matter of free trade (Trump has already said he will skip the closing sessions). Canada is expected to be among the loudest to criticize Trump’s recent decision to slap import duties on aluminum and steel (produced by even some of America’s closest allies), rightly arguing that trade should be as free as possible, and no more so than among allies.

Except for our precious dairy cows and chickens, of course. Those must be protected at all costs.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or NP View: Andrew Scheer's Conservatives are as fake on free trade as Trudeau Back to video

Canada’s major political parties have long had a bizarrely conflicted, deeply hypocritical approach to trade. Canada’s prosperity hinges entirely on open access to world markets. Trade has made us among the richest nations (per capita, of course), in the world. It sustains our high quality of life. Both the Liberals and Conservatives understand this, at least in recent political history, and have aggressively championed more Canadian access to the world.