Welcome to Need to Know, The Hub’s roundup of experts and insiders providing insights into the developments Canadians need to be keeping an eye on.
Today’s weekend edition dives into thought-provoking research from think tanks, academics, and leading policy thinkers in Canada and around the world. Here’s what’s got us thinking this week.
It’s been a heck of a first few days for President Donald Trump. In just one week, the president issued nearly 60 executive orders on everything from trade to migration and citizenship to ending DEI programs, and everything in between. Many of these have already received intense backlash, and a lot of D.C. lawyers are racking up those billable hours with all the impending court challenges.
While it’s unclear how many of Trump’s policies will survive impending legal challenges, several either directly or indirectly impact Canada.
Trump’s executive orders hit Canada
Amid the fire and fury of executive actions, several have implications for Canada, raising questions about how we should respond (if only we had a sitting deliberative body where such questions could be debated!).
Here are the ones to date that Canadians should keep an eye on:
America First trade policy: On January 20, 2025, Trump announced his “America First Trade Policy,” directing reviews of trade deficits and “unfair” practices, including “the unlawful migration and fentanyl flows from Canada, Mexico, the PRC…” The policy mandates an assessment of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) before its scheduled 2026 review. Hopefully, Canadian government officials are well on their way to developing their CUSMA renegotiation strategies, considering the formal review is now less than two years away at most.