Trudeau taps Freeland to lead revived U.S. relations cabinet committee in wake of Trump victory

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has named Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to lead a revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations as the government prepares for Donald Trump’s presidential comeback.

The government said the committee will first meet on Friday, three days after Americans elected Mr. Trump. The Republican will be sworn in as president in January, but Ottawa says it has been planning for the possibility of a second Trump presidency since the start of the year.

The re-established committee on Canada-U.S. relations will be chaired by Ms. Freeland, with Dominic LeBlanc, the Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, serving as vice-chair.

Just days before Mr. Trump was first inaugurated in January, 2017, the Prime Minister shuffled his cabinet to respond to the new presidency. He promoted Ms. Freeland to foreign minister and gave her control of U.S. relations and the challenge of stickhandling trade policies, including the renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement.

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Now Finance Minister, Ms. Freeland’s public agenda on Thursday included meetings with the steel and auto industries. Both were set up in response to the U.S. election, according to her itinerary.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Mr. Trump imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and 10 per cent on aluminum. Canada responded with its own retaliatory tariffs.

In his new administration, the president-elect has said he would impose a minimum 10-per-cent global tariff on all goods coming into the United States.

For days now, federal ministers have avoided detailing how Canada plans to respond to those tariffs if they are levelled by the new administration. At a press conference in Toronto, International Trade Minister Mary Ng declined to say whether Canada would respond with retaliatory tariffs but insisted the government will stand up for Canadian workers.

She also made the case that Mr. Trump’s proposed policies will raise costs for Americans and businesses south of the border, which she said is already a concern for some.

“I trust that those American businesses will share their views with their new administration,” Ms. Ng said.

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The Trade Minister and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly are among the members of the new cabinet committee. At the same Toronto press conference, Ms. Joly noted that in the first call between Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the two leaders spoke about trade and protecting supply chains.

She said that even more than in the first administration, “making sure that we protect our national security while protecting jobs at home will be key” during the second Trump administration.

In addition to trade, Mr. Trump’s plans for immigration and defence are also expected to put pressure on Canada and all of the ministers connected to those files are part of the federal cabinet committee.

It will also include Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Defence Minister Bill Blair, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Treasury Board President and Transport Minister Anita Anand, Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan.

The Prime Minister did not keep the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations after the 2019 election when his party was returned to government in a minority, according to his office’s press release from that time.