The former prime minister shared his thoughts on the Trump administration at Brown University

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Justin Trudeau said the U.S. is an “extremely unpredictable” partner because President Donald Trump’s administration is “no longer working” in the best interest of Americans.

The former prime minister shared his thoughts on the current Trump administration as part of a question and answer session with Brown University President Christina Paxson in Rhode Island on Tuesday.

Asked by Paxson where he sees the current “trade tensions” between Canada and the U.S. ending up, Trudeau said that there are differences between the current administration and when he negotiated with Trump during his first term.

One of them is the increased predictability as Trump seeks to sign “win-lose” deals, rather than “win-win” deals, with other countries, even if it has a negative impact on Americans.

“The U.S. for decades behaved in its own interest, but in a predictable way,” Trudeau told the American crowd. “You got to say, ‘no, no, if we’re going to do something, it has to be in our interest.’ That’s fine, and the world figured out how to make sure that your interests and our interests could be served.”

“Suddenly, the unpredictability is the U.S. administration is no longer working in the best interest of the American people, and that makes it extremely unpredictable and difficult for countries to navigate through, for friends to rely on, but also for businesses to invest,” he added.

To prove his point, Trudeau cited Trump’s latest tariffs on Canadian aluminium and softwood lumber as self-harming policies by the U.S. administration.

The U.S. does not produce enough aluminium and has long relied on Canadian product to meet its domestic demand, Trudeau said. So, when Canadian aluminum costs more due to U.S. tariffs, a myriad of American products like beer cans become more expensive without local production increasing.

“So you have raised prices on the cost of your own beer and everything else, and you are substituting buying aluminum from Canada from buying aluminum from Bahrain,” he said.

“You’re making it more difficult for consumers and producers and manufacturers in America to get aluminum from a reliable supply.”

The same goes for Canadian softwood lumber, the former prime minister said. Since the U.S. can’t produce enough of it locally to support a major housing boom, it still needs to turn to Canadian product… which now costs more because of Trump’s new tariffs since 2025.

“That means home builders pay more for their wood in the United States than you would need to, just so that the few companies that actually make and harvest wood in the United States can charge higher prices,” he said.

“There is a pattern here of doing things that are driving up prices for your consumers, and not necessarily making anything better for America by fighting with one of your oldest and best allies,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau told the crowd that they are not alone in staring into the unknown abyss that is the future in these tumultuous times.

“Over the past 10 years, leaders have been sort of trying to figure it out on the fly,” Trudeau said.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.