It’s no trade secret — despite difficult NAFTA renegotiations and increasing protectionist talk in the U.S., Ontarians remain positive about international economic agreements, a new survey has found.

However, about half of respondents believe America gets the better end of such deals — “no one is buying whatever the president says over the phone,” said Andrew Parkin, director of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto. Parkin was referring to a recent phone call where Donald Trump incorrectly told the prime minister that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada — a comment he also repeated on social media.

The public opinion survey, to be released by the non-partisan public policy think-tank on Wednesday, says 81 per cent of Ontarians surveyed are in favour of new trade agreements, and about 60 per cent support more globalization.

Results of the survey come as Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne continues efforts to ward off “Buy America” talk in the U.S. — such a policy comes into effect in New York as of April 1 — while boosting trade relations south of the border.

Wynne met with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb Tuesday, and the two signed a memorandum of understanding “to work on — whether it’s the auto sector, whether it’s aerospace … to consolidate the partnership,” the premier said at an earlier press conference.

“The reason I have met with governors all over the States is that we have strong trading partnerships at the sub-national level … it’s really important that we understand each other and where there are opportunities to work together on innovation, where there are opportunities to do exchanges of knowledge that we do that because we will all be better off.”

Their memorandum noted the two jurisdictions “are more than good neighbours — our trade partnership is a major economic driver for our regions. Ontario is Indiana’s top Canadian export customer, and in 2017 two-way trade between the two regions totalled more than $20 billion (Cdn).

“Nearly 190,000 Indiana jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada, with more than 110 Ontario-owned corporations and small businesses operating in the state, employing approximately 14,000 Indiana residents,” the memo says.

One in four Ontario residents approve of closer relations with the U.S., though most prefer them to stay the same, the Mowat Centre survey found.

It also found that while a majority believe the country and province reap benefits from international trade, only about half of respondents believe local communities do.

While 60 per cent in Toronto think international trade benefits their community, 31 per cent in Eastern Ontario and 30 per cent in the southwestern end of the province think it harms their communities.

The survey of 2,000 people from an online panel has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

The Mowat Centre said the Trump presidency and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom “serve as reminders that the public mood can shift.”

Here in Ontario, the centre noted, the financial crisis of 2008, as well as the continued shedding of manufacturing jobs as well as the growth of precarious work could have an impact on public opinion.

At Queen’s Park, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wynne is doing what needs to be done — “building relationships and making connections” with U.S. governors, but called the situation “worrisome.”

“I’m from Hamilton and I worry about trade and I worry about what happens to good steelworker jobs, for example, if things go the wrong way with NAFTA or any other trade deal,” she said.

Parkin said international trade attitudes were supportive back in 2001, when the last public opinion survey was done, and that respondents generally see it as an “underpinning of the economy.”

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“I think Canadians have aligned trade with their openness to the world more generally,” he said. “In 2001, we saw trade overlapped with other things — Canada’s involvement in NATO, the United Nations, immigrations — and it has become a part of Canada’s open and global personality.”

This is an edited vesion of a story that corrects details around feelings about trade benefits in different parts of the province.

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