Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press »
It is “kind of silly” to blame Trudeau for Canada’s economic reliance on the United States because it has been a “bipartisan project” since the late 1980s, said Blayne Haggart, a political science professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.
A desire for more secure access to U.S. markets prompted Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney to pursue a free-trade agreement with the United States.
That agreement and its implications for Canadian industry, society and culture became the focus of the 1988 general election that led to Mulroney’s re-election.
The Canada-U.S. free trade agreement would soon expand to include Mexico, forming the basis of trade between the three countries through successive Liberal and Conservative governments to this day.
