Prime Minister Justin Trudeau braved a sea of student selfies at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management on June 22. The sold-out talk, “Trade in the Balance: Canada-U.S. Relations,” was conducted by New York Times journalists Peter Baker and Catherine Porter. Trudeau discussed the importance of the North American Free Trade Agreement – noting that with nine million jobs and a trillion dollars in trade at stake, the importance of NAFTA can’t be understated. Jokingly described by Baker as “the Trump whisperer,” Trudeau also talked about building a constructive relationship with U.S. president Donald Trump. (He even chatted about how affected he was by the play Come From Away, which he saw with Ivanka Trump: “I cried repeatedly … It’s not a good look for me.”)
Regarding Canada’s foreign policy direction, Trudeau said the country will continue to chart its own path, and “even close friends like the United States … don’t want Canada either to be or be seen as simply an extension of American policy.”
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