Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. says the country is prepared for a Harris or Trump administration

With less than 24 hours to go before the U.S. presidential election, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States said Monday she doesn’t feel anxious about the election or its results, whether they fall in favour of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump.

“I’m not staying up at night, because I feel like we’ve really, really done the groundwork to prepare for this election; to prepare Canada and Canadians for a Trump administration or a Harris administration,” said Ambassador Kirsten Hillman in an interview with CTV News. Hillman has served as Canada’s ambassador to the United States since 2020.

“I’m eager to see how it all turns out, but I know we’re ready,” she said.

Hillman noted there are opportunities and challenges with either candidate, just as there are with every U.S. administration.

Among those challenges: Trump’s proposal to impose a 10-per-cent tariff on all imports from Canada to the U.S.

“That’s not good for Canada, but it’s not good for the United States,” Hillman said. “We’ve spent an awful lot of time going around this country, talking to Republicans whose state or community or city benefits greatly from Canada being their number one customer and from Canadian investment and job creation in their region. So, we’ve got sort of the groundwork laid to have that conversation with former president Trump, should he enter the White House again.”

Hillman said that the administration knows Donald Trump well, after his first term in office.

“He is very straightforward,” Hillman said. “You know, oftentimes, people think: ‘Well, he is saying this particular thing; maybe he doesn’t really mean it.’ Generally speaking, he does.”

Hillman told CTV News that Canada needs to take the policies Trump puts forward as ones he intends to implement.

“He’s very eager to work transactionally with countries, and that’s a strength for us, because the United States has no stronger bilateral relationship than the one that they have with us,” she said.

Hillman said Canada has a lot to bring to a conversation with former president Trump, citing the renegotiation of NAFTA during Trump’s first term as evidence to that.

“We came out with a really good deal in the end, and a deal that modernized the foundation of our relationship.”

Hillman said there was minimal disruption from the renegotiation, and that the years since it was signed have seen the most trade in history between Canada and the United States.

Harris, meanwhile, has been well known to the ambassador’s team since their prior work together on space and AI policy, Hillman said.

“She’s very interested in tech,” she said. “So that’ll be interesting to understand where she might want to go with that.”

Hillman said Harris’ environmental concerns play to Canada’s strengths and energy diversity, but they still don’t know what her specific focus will be for Canada-U.S. relations, should she win the presidency.

Though their efforts demonstrate what Canada provides to the specific communities they visit, Hillman noted, the strategy also works to realize national goals overall, which builds on the things they learned while re-negotiating NAFTA. 

“This time, the goal is to get around the United States, and exactly that, to underline the value proposition of Canada, in the Canada-U.S. relationship, what we bring to the relationship and to do it with confidence.”