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By Kevin Lynch and Paul Deegan

August 31, 2026

Given recent developments in our bilateral relationship with the United States under its current president, it is now clear that our disagreement over the unprecedented use of tariffs to coerce acquiescence to otherwise unacceptable economic change is about much more than trade.

It is about sovereignty.

Team Trump misread Canadians and overreached. Prime Minister Mark Carney rightly walked away from a bad deal that he knew Canadians wouldn’t buy.

Sovereignty – not trade – was on the table when American demands included dictating Canadian cultural and digital policy, eroding French language rights, enshrining privileged access to Canadian critical minerals and oil, and demanding an effective veto over future trade agreements that Canada might wish to sign.

In withdrawing from the negotiations, Carney has made it crystal clear that Canada will not capitulate to predatory hegemons. Sovereignty is much more than dollars and cents. It is our culture and identity. It is who we are as a proud and free people.

In explaining to Canadians why we are in a trade war with the United States and how we will manage this rupture, Carney delivered a masterclass in crisis communications – precise, measured, and confident. His words reverberated from the passionate political debates at Tim Hortons to the hushed halls of foreign capitals.

They were complemented by many other Canadian political leaders, particularly Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is very effective in expressing his own Canadian pride and passion on both sides of the border.

To succeed, we must be a united Team Canada that takes action rather than pining for a more reasonable, less predatory North American economic and security partner.

This includes: rapidly expanding trade with other countries; even more rapidly removing barriers to trade among Canadians; building trade infrastructure at record speed; developing our valuable natural resources at a pace we have not seen in a generation; and making the policy changes needed to get productivity growing again.

This is how we defend our economic sovereignty in the face of Trump’s tariff attacks.

But this isn’t just about us. It’s also about Americans understanding that these senseless attacks on Canada by the Trump Administration hurt their economy, reduce their security, and undermine their country’s place in the world.

So, we need to talk to Americans about what has happened and why. To restore a relationship of trust and respect over and above the daily verbal and policy assaults by this administration, we need allies in Congress, in state capitals, in the business community and across the American public. Allyship starts with understanding.

While Trump’s treatment of Canada and Canadians has generated expressions of outrage and support, it has been muted by fear of criticizing President Trump, who is well known for his vindictiveness, and the disinformation of the Trump propaganda sphere.

This isn’t just about us. It’s also about Americans understanding that these senseless attacks on Canada by the Trump Administration hurt their economy, reduce their security, and undermine their country’s place in the world.

His latest publicity stunt — renaming Lake Ontario Lake America — is a propaganda case in point. It was meant to both provoke a reaction from Canadians and distract Americans who are hurting from tariff-induced higher prices and a war that is hitting them hard at the gas pump.

What is worrying is that few American commentators are willing to call out President Trump for his falsehoods about trade with Canada. In 2020, Trump 1.0 called USMCA (or CUSMA) “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement ever signed into law.”

This is rather hard to square with Trump’s recent excuse for attacking us with tariffs and his smears that Canada has been “ripping off the USA for decades”. This is on top of his manufactured fentanyl border crisis, non-existent national security crisis cited for tariffing steel and aluminum, his equally performative forced labour laments, and his imaginary trade deficits.

Canada used to be very good at coordinated outreach to Americans, with missions to visit governors, members of Congress, business leaders, and the press. There are some exceptions, but we seem to have lessened our focus and tempo in recent years. If we want to take a long view of the relationship, we must talk to Americans.

A targeted and coordinated communications strategy to Americans can be a formidable weapon in Mark Carney’s arsenal in this trade war.

Our embassy in Washington and consulates across the U.S. should be going full-out on outreach, and enlisting business leaders as assets. Canadian business leaders should emulate Doug Ford in speaking plainly about how the tariffs and uncertainty are also hurting American profits and jobs — in interviews on CNBC, editorial board meetings with national and local papers, and speaking to business organizations and local chambers of commerce south of the border.

The sad fact is American chief executive officers have been totally cowed by Trump 2.0. The most obvious case is the tech sector where Amazon, Meta, Google, Apple, and OpenAI have all cravenly embraced Trump while seeking favourable policy decisions for their businesses.

Where are the voices of the CEOs of the U.S automakers whose companies were saved from bankruptcy in 2009 in part thanks to massive Canadian government support? And here at home, we should be expecting those who lead the Canadian divisions of American companies to stand up publicly for the value of their Canadian operations, not be silent. A case in point: why hasn’t the country head of Google Canada condemned the parent company’s decision to label Lake Ontario as “Lake America” in some jurisdictions?

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in January, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, wrote, “In my experience, many leaders harbor deep concerns about Mr. Trump’s lawlessness, weaponization of the government, and interference in markets. They refrain from public criticism not because they find nothing to criticize but because they’re intimidated.”

The Murdoch-owned Journal has earned the ire of Trump for condemning his tariff assault on Canada as the “Dumbest Trade War” in history.

We need an innovative communications strategy, using all types of media and a battalion of messengers — including Canadians well-known to Americans — to amplify that essential Wall Street Journal message to audiences, particularly ordinary Americans who are feeling the pocketbook pinch and anxiety of tariffs, throughout the United States.

Putting this trade war in a broader perspective, Michael Ignatieff recently wrote in a Substack post that “Every country watching this North American fight will realize that Canada isn’t just fighting for its own sovereignty, but for everyone else’s too.”

Carney called it months ago: We cannot capitulate to hegemons. Speaking directly to Americans should be part of our offence to protect our sovereignty. We have always been and will continue to be maîtres chez nous.

Hon. Kevin Lynch was Clerk of the Privy Council and vice chair of BMO Financial Group

Paul Deegan is CEO of Deegan Public Strategies and served in the Clinton White House’s National Economic Council