Lloyd Axworthy tells students Canada needs to re-engage with other countries to withstand U.S. economic policies

Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s former minister of foreign affairs, kicked off The School of Public Policy’s 2025 Forum speaker series calling for Canada to urgently re-engage with the global community as a safeguard against policies from the new U.S. administration.

“We find ourselves as a country, and we are not alone in this, living in a very different world from what we thought we were living in,” said Axworthy, whose autobiography Lloyd Axworthy: My Life in Politics, was released in October 2024, covering a 27-year political career, including cabinet positions for prime ministers Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, and Jean Chretien.

Axworthy, who is also a former president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg, took questions from students and faculty at the event on Feb. 11. He provided insights from his experience in policymaking and the evolution of political parties in Canada to the early-career practitioners in policy seeking to navigate an increasingly complex world.

“We can no longer rely on the security and stability in collaboration with the United States,” he told students in the Master of Public Policy program, as U.S. President Donald Trump leveled threats of tariffs on imports from Canada and other countries. “Mr. Trump has clearly issued a clarion call for economic warfare. I don’t see him going much beyond that but he is using these tariffs as a bludgeon to achieve political ends.”

Axworthy lamented Canada’s retrenchment from many international organizations and multi-country initiatives and cited Canada’s previous leadership on the Mine Ban Treaty, known as the Ottawa Treaty, that he spearheaded in 2002.

“We probably should have been more global in our approach to our relationships and not be so dependent and not have so many of our economic apples and our military commitments in such deep embrace with the Americans,” he said.

Canada must re-establish trading and diplomatic relationships with like-minded countries with the sudden redrawing of the global map, said Axworthy. He recently coauthored an article for Policy Magazine with Michael W. Manulak and Allan Rock titled The Time Has Come for Canada to Hit Back that encourages our political leaders to work with partners to counter U.S. behaviour.