Canada turns down proposal for U.S. troops along the border
Canada turned down the United States proposal to put troops at the U.S.-Canada border during the coronavirus crisis. Bruce Heyman, Former United States Ambassador to Canada addresses the latest details on Yahoo Finance’s On The Move.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. I'm Julie Hyman. We were just talking about the response of the states in contrast to the federal government, as they have addressed this coronavirus outbreak. Let's talk a little bit more about different countries and specifically, Canada. We are joined by the former US ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman. He is joining us from Chicago. It is good to see you, sir.
BRUCE HEYMAN: Good to see you.
JULIE HYMAN: There was an idea floated at one point that we would see sort of increased troops on the border between US and Canada. That seems now to have been discarded. It doesn't look like it's going to happen. But what do you think does need to be the action, either at the border or in general, to sort of stop flow of people, right? Because we don't want people moving around during this thing.
BRUCE HEYMAN: So I actually think it's functioning pretty well. The prime minister really had three goals when he was going into this decision to work with the president on stopping the flow of people for unnecessary travel across the border. So his first goal was clearly the health and well-being of the Canadian citizens. His second goal, though, was to keep commerce moving because so much is important for foods and medicines to move across that border.
And then third, do it in a way that doesn't upset the White House and the president, and particularly, who can get upset really easily, with the neighbor and not with an ally. And so I think they were able to pull that off. I think the reality is that although in good times, we have about 400,000 people traveling across our shared border at 120 border crossings almost every single day, that that has gone down to near zero.
Flights have been canceled. Hotels are closed. Restaurants are closed. So reasons for going across the border socially have diminished to a trickle, if at all. And so the functioning of the border needs to continue to function. My fear is after this is over, that people somehow recognize that the border's there and do things to thicken that border in a post-virus world.
MELODY HAHM: Hi, Melody here. When you think about-- I actually was just scrolling your Twitter feed, and you shared some interesting analysis from Kantar, one of the findings being that while most G-7 nations consider TV news to be the most trusted source for reliable information about this virus in Canada, the government is actually the most trusted source. Having been someone who liaised between both nations, how do you think the response from both Trump and Trudeau compare and contrast here?
BRUCE HEYMAN: I think it couldn't be more stark. The Canadian approach is one of taking this seriously, but letting the medical side and the scientific side take the lead on policy. And so all the policy that has been developed has been through the professional side, as opposed to the political side.
Second, the coordination with the premieres, which is just like our governors, has been near in sync and absolute with each other. And so that coordination is working. And so the Canadian public listening to the government has a lot of confidence. Truth is being told, honesty and integrity. And the prime minister was broadcasting while his wife had come down with COVID-19 and broadcasting from isolation at his home.
In any case, that is very different from denying it's there, Democratic hoax, you know, 15 people going to zero. And then we had, of course, in the states, we had Mardi Gras, and we had the beaches, spring break, and St. Patrick's Day-- very different activities.
I think that caused the anxiety in Canada watching that happening, which I think precipitated to that closing of the border for social travel, knowing that the Americans were spreading this pretty actively, while the Canadians were working hard to prevent, you know, that community spread.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Ambassador, it's Adam Shapiro. I'm curious. After this has all passed, what will trade between the two countries look like? What will be the new normal? Will it change?
BRUCE HEYMAN: Yeah. Great question. So here's my concern. These types of events promote nationalism. You know, we're already seeing this language. The White House is considering a buy American provision for drugs and medical devices. It sounds good domestically. Why not buy America? Why not do all of that?
But this nationalism makes us more isolated in the world. It divides us from our allies and our trading partners. And while globalism may have gone too far in some respects, in other respects, it's important for bringing us together. Canada and the US build things together. We make things together. We are interlocked in so many ways, and it's a balanced trading relationship.
My fear is that the US becoming more isolated, promoting buy America, makes us more internally focused and hurts allies like Canada in that process. So I worry about this whole buy America movement that seems to be developing in the White House.
JULIE HYMAN: Ambassador, it's great to see you, and stay well. Ambassador Bruce Heyman, former US ambassador to Canada, joining us from Chicago, appreciate it.
BRUCE HEYMAN: Pleasure. Thank you.
