Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks past members of his cabinet after speaking to reporters during the Liberal Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on Aug. 23, 2023.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet will look beyond its domestic headwinds and prepare for a volatile election year south of the border when ministers gather for their biannual retreat beginning on Sunday in Montreal.
Mr. Trudeau will meet behind closed doors with his cabinet for three days just a week before the House of Commons returns for the winter sitting.
His minority Liberals ended the year more united and believing that they had stopped their slide in public opinion polls amid perceived Conservative missteps. However, the latest polling shows the Conservatives still hold a double-digit lead over the Liberals and Mr. Trudeau is trailing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in favourability and preferred prime minister rankings.
The pocketbook issues, such as affordability and housing, which are driving some of those negative numbers for the Liberals, will make up a large part of the cabinet’s agenda, but the Prime Minister’s Office said Canada’s relationship with the United States will also take centre stage.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trudeau warned a Montreal business crowd that Mr. Trump’s first presidency wasn’t easy “and if there is a second time, it won’t be easy either.”
Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, will brief cabinet alongside former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard, according to a source with knowledge of the agenda.
The Globe is not disclosing the person’s name because they were not permitted to publicly discuss the cabinet meeting plans.
Ms. Hillman has been ambassador since 2020. She has previously been Canada’s deputy ambassador in Washington and was the assistant deputy minister responsible for trade policy and negotiations during the North American free-trade agreement renegotiation with former president Donald Trump.
Mr. Blanchard was a member of the government’s NAFTA advisory council during those trade talks. He is now an executive vice-president at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
The two will be joined by Laura Dawson, the executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, and Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.
Ms. Dawson, whose binational organization advocates on supply chains and travel, welcomed cabinet’s focus on the United States and said she believes the government is taking the possibility of a Trump comeback seriously. But she cautioned that the government should do more than just prepare to react in the event he is elected.
“The chance of a Trump presidency is significant and serious enough that Canada needs to be taking some mitigating actions immediately, yesterday,” Ms. Dawson said.
Mr. Trump is still competing for the Republican nomination but he is leading his opponents by a wide margin. Public opinion polling in the United States suggests that if Mr. Trump topped the GOP ticket he would be competitive with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Ms. Dawson said Mr. Trudeau’s government should immediately start deploying the same Team Canada approach it used during Mr. Trump’s first term. In that case, Canada’s diplomacy went well beyond the Washington Beltway to the cities, regions and states most closely connected to and reliant on Canada.
Ms. Dawson cautioned that if Mr. Trump becomes president, Canada should expect a more isolationist version of the first Trump presidency, and urged Canada not to be complacent about what a second presidency could bring simply because Canada already has experience with him.
On the big picture, Mr. Volpe said he believes Canada is aligned with both Republicans and Democrats, for example on the need to shore up supply chains to combat China’s dominance in areas such as critical minerals. He said Canada has done a good job at keeping up the Team Canada advocacy but he added that the U.S. election concerns serve as a reminder that you can’t just strike a team right before the Olympics.
“That team needs to be active every year, all the time,” Mr. Volpe said.
The Prime Minister’s Office source said cabinet will also hear from University of British Columbia economics professor Kevin Milligan, Manulife chief economist Frances Donald, and economist and Atkinson Fellow on the future of workers Armine Yalnizyan, who will be addressing middle class issues and affordability.
The final panel will focus on housing and include Mike Moffatt, founding director of the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, and Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.
Mr. Milligan, Mr. Moffatt, and Ms. Yalnizyan have all previously advised Mr. Trudeau’s government.