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During the campaign, Trudeau took a nuanced position on the TPP, and was careful not to oppose it and went to great lengths in a statement to declare the Liberals a party that “strongly supports free trade” as key to creating opportunities for businesses, jobs for Canadians and benefits for consumers. In the same statement, Trudeau lauded the TPP as a deal that would remove barriers and expand trade for Canada and promised a thorough debate in Canada’s Parliament. As all trade deals are debated this way, all signs point to a pro-TPP Trudeau government when legislation is ready for debate and the deal needs to be ratified.

Then there’s CETA. On Oct. 22, 2013, just days after the agreement-in-principle between Canada and the EU had been announced, Harper was under relentless attack in the House of Commons about what he knew in the Mike Duffy Senate expenses scandal. Yet when it was his turn, Trudeau did something remarkable. Rising in the House of Commons he said: “Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to the many Canadians at all levels of government and in the public service who played a role in the achievement of the agreement between Canada and the European Union, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of International Trade and people like former premier Jean Charest. Congratulations.” He then asked a question about when more details would be made available to Parliament.

Congratulating the government on a policy achievement as opposed to trying to score political points during Question Period is rare in official Ottawa — especially if the government is already playing defence on an issue. This bodes well for exporters across key sectors of Canada’s economy as they continued to prepare to take advantage of preferred access to the EU market, the largest and most lucrative in the world.