If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump are going to work together, the pair needs to understand what the other is looking to accomplish.

In his first broadcast interview since the Nov. 8 election, the United States Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman told BNN Tuesday that an understanding between the two leaders will be the key to future of trade relations.

“I think the best way [to get on the same page] is to sit down and listen and to get the best understanding of each other’s perspective and then use that as the roadmap of moving ahead.”

Heyman added that he does not foresee the ideological differences between the Liberal Trudeau and Republican Trump administrations hindering cooperation.

“I think that Canada would do well to do that as this new administration comes together and develops its philosophies,” he says. “I think it will be naturally attuned to listening to what the U.S. administration is going to want to do going forward.”

CHANGING TIDES

While both leaders were swept into office as a result of a dramatic shift away from the previous regime, Heyman sees a global shift that has resulted in Trump’s march to the White House in addition to regime-changing referendum results in both Great Britain and Italy.

The populist movement stateside, Heyman says, is a direct result of a changing technological landscape that has resulted in job loss at the manufacturing level.

“We’re going through a rapid technological change and that rapid technological change which is happening at an increasingly-fast pace [is] putting old school, old-line companies out of business. Unfortunately so many people - where there were great companies and people worked incredibly hard – those companies and those individuals going out of business leave people stranded if they don’t have skill sets to operate in the new economy,” he told BNN.

“It used to be [that] you had at least some time to understand and adapt to the new economy. Now the change is happening so rapidly that companies that were very successful for a very long time are finding themselves disintermediated not as much from the globalization, but more so from the automation and technological innovation that’s taking place.”

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

The jobs picture in the U.S. has shown both positives and negatives in its first post-Trump month, but Heyman believes that the U.S. market is still a prime opportunity for Canadian companies looking to make a southern move.

Speaking from the American Chamber of Commerce-sponsored SelectUSA conference in Montreal, Heyman stated that appetite for Canadian companies to dip into the American market is still high. 

“The U.S. customer, today, [is] operating with 4.6 per cent unemployment, stock markets [are] hitting record highs, consumer confidence is over 90 per cent,” he said.  “And so [foreign companies are] looking for ways to grow their business beyond their domestic market,” Heyman told BNN.

“They’re not really focused on the larger political conversation, they’re really focused on: ‘How do I get my product closest to suppliers or closer to my customers?’ and ‘Where should I do that within the United States?’”