With Donald Trump as president, the U.S. has an open strategy of creating economic uncertainty in other countries to discourage investment “anywhere other than the United States,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
“We have to be candid about the reality of the incoming U.S. administration,” she said at a news conference in Toronto on Friday.
Freeland described the Trump administration as proudly economic nationalist.
She said there is a global fight for capital, investment and the jobs they bring, and Canada needs to be assertive in fighting for capital.
“We need to own the podium and say Canada is a great place to invest,” she said.
Freeland promised to elaborate on those comments in the government’s fall economic statement, which is scheduled to be released on Monday.
The federal and provincial governments are working out how navigate Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada when he takes office in January.
Prime Minister Justin …