Trump has made no secret of what he wants from Canada: oil, and lots of it. The U.S. currently produces 13 million barrels of oil per day and it uses 20—that’s a daily deficit of seven million barrels. Canada sells them four million barrels daily to reduce the deficit. And Trump wants a Canada that can continue to help offset that difference. Developing our domestic energy industry and finally building our all-but-abandoned pipeline projects would help us establish new trading partners beyond the U.S., reduce our reliance on the Americans and transform Canada into a truly independent economic superpower.

Oil is our leverage, and right now we’re wasting it. Canada produces some of the cleanest, most ethically sourced oil in the world, yet more than 90 per cent of our crude exports go straight to the U.S., usually at a steep discount. We sell low, buy back high, and hope that Washington doesn’t change the rules. It makes economic sense to trade with them because we do not have the infrastructure in place to consistently sell oil to another trade partner. Our entire negotiating position is based on the hope that America continues to want our oil and doesn’t decide to punish us elsewhere. This isn’t a trade relationship; it’s dependency. And it’s dangerous.

We’ve missed previous chances to bolster our energy industry. Over the last decade, proposals have appeared to........

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