Canada’s dependence on U.S. has decades-long evolution, experts say

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly accused the Liberal government of entrenching Canada's economic dependence on the United States.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly accused the Liberal government of entrenching Canada’s economic dependence on the United States.

But political scientists say the reality is more complex, noting a broad trend toward continental integration of national economies that began almost 40 years ago.

On the federal election trail, Poilievre decried a “lost Liberal decade” of economic stagnation. He blamed former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government for failing to advance resource projects, allowing Canadian energy to head to the United States at a discount and losing billions of investment dollars to American companies.

It is “kind of silly” to blame Trudeau for Canada’s economic reliance on the United States because it has been a “bipartisan project” since the late 1980s, said Blayne Haggart, a political science professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

A desire for more secure access to U.S. markets prompted Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney to pursue a free-trade agreement with the United States.

That agreement and its implications for Canadian industry, society and culture became the focus of the 1988 general election that led to Mulroney’s re-election.

The Canada-U.S. free trade agreement would soon expand to include Mexico, forming the basis of trade between the three countries through successive Liberal and Conservative governments to this day.

Greg Anderson, a political science professor at the University of Alberta, said Poilievre had some valid criticisms of the Liberal government’s shaky record on fostering economic growth, especially relative to the United States.