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OTTAWA — Former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland says it’s important for national security reasons that Canada do everything it can to diversify trade away from the United States.
During a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, Freeland said it’s dangerous to deepen or maintain a close economic relationship with a partner who “openly says they want to take you over.”
“Unfortunately, tragically, that’s where we are today,” she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly mused about turning Canada into the 51st state and, while he ruled out using military force to annex the country in January 2025, has said he would consider using “economic force.”
Even if the U.S. had a president who believed in free trade with Canada, Freeland said being dependent on any one partner is “not a great idea.”
“About 60 per cent of Canadians live within a hundred miles of the Canada-U.S. border,” said Freeland. “It makes a huge amount of sense for us to trade with you, but I think for national security reasons, we have to keep on doing everything we can to diversify.”
The Liberal government has set out to double non-U. S. exports over the next decade and have boasted of signing more than 20 strategic trade and defence agreements around the world amid trade tensions with the United States.
Freeland said the Canadian desire to diversify is “very, very long-standing.” She added that Canada’s push to deepen its relationship with the Europe is a continuation of Canadian policy, going back to the years when Stephen Harper was in power.
“I think that what you’re seeing now for sure is a desire in Canada and in Europe to make that relationship even closer,” she said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
In a speech to the European Parliament last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was opening the door to negotiating terms for Canada to become the first associate member of the European Union.
A day later, Prime Minister Mark Carney told the EU Parliament that Canada welcomes the goal, though exactly what that entails is still to be determined.
“We welcome this ambition — polling shows an overwhelming majority of Canadians support much closer ties,” Carney said in his speech.
Canada and the EU are holding a bilateral summit later this month. Many observers hope that meeting produces details of a proposed new partnership between Canada and the EU.
Freeland’s new book, “Unreliable Boyfriend,” was released this week and is part international analysis about the evolving role of the United States and part political memoir.
Its title is a reference to a comment she made on an American talk show in February, when she said the U.S. is “not a very reliable boyfriend right now.”
Freeland was former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s deputy prime minister for five years before resigning from cabinet in a dramatic split from the prime minister in December 2024, just hours before she was due to deliver the fall economic statement.
She rejoined cabinet under Carney, but resigned from the role late last year and stepped down from Parliament in January, taking up a role as an economic development adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and accepting a job as CEO of the Rhodes Trust.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
— With files from Dylan Robertson and Nick Murray
Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
