LILLEY: Carney's new ambassador can only be an improvement over Hillman

Mark Wiseman has his job cut out for him as our new ambassador in Washington. Wiseman takes over at a low point in Canada-U.S. relations soured by Donald Trump’s tariffs, his 51st state rhetoric, an emotional and over-the-top response by Canadian politicians and an ineffectual Canadian diplomatic corps in the American capital. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement of Wiseman’s appointment official almost two weeks after Kirsten Hillman, our current ambassador, announced her resignation. 

“Mark Wiseman brings immense experience, extensive contacts, and deep commitment at this crucial time of transformation of our relationship with the United States,” Carney said in a statement. 

Wiseman has extensive experience as an investment banker working both on Bay St. and in New York over the years. He’s been described as a friend of Carney’s, a protege and was the PM’s chief fundraiser in Canada’s business community when Carney made the leap to politics. 

Now his job is to represent Canada in a place where we aren’t as welcome as we were once.

The Canada-U.S. relationship is under stress

Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st state have mostly faded away, but tariffs remain and the renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) are set to formally begin in January. While officially a review, the Trump administration has made clear that they want changes to the deal that came into effect around six years ago. 

Recommended video

On top of that, Canadian steel, aluminum, copper and non-CUSMA compliant auto parts and any general Canadian exports not compliant with CUSA are all facing 35% tariffs from Washington. Meanwhile, Canadian softwood lumber exports are now facing tariffs as high as 45%, about triple what most companies were for facing a year ago. 

This is the environment Wiseman is walking into. Let’s hope he has a more realistic view than his boss who thinks things are improving. 

“We are in a lot better position than we were nine months ago,” Prime Minister Carney said in an interview with CBC that aired over the weekend. 

Considering that the tariffs have risen over that time period instead of declining or being removed, Carney’s statement makes no sense. He’s pretending that things have improved under his tenure when in reality the relationship has only gotten worse. 

In another year-end interview, Carney claimed that he and his team were close to an agreement with the United States in October until Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad angered Trump. That might be believable if Carney and his team hadn’t been leaking about a deal being imminent with Trump multiple times since the first days of June. Each time that imminent deal fell apart with no explanation. 

Canada’s embassy under Hillman failed us all

Wiseman also takes over at a time when the Canadian embassy’s reputation is less than stellar. Under Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, the embassy and its staff were well acquainted with the Biden administration but failed to make contacts in Republican circles. 

When Trump and his team took over in January, there were few people the embassy could call on and little understanding of the political movement taking over Washington. Things were so bad that the embassy hired a firm run by Democrats to teach them how to understand conservative media and how to speak to Republicans. 

Hopefully, under Wiseman, things get better because to be honest, they can’t get much worse. 

While Wiseman has been appointed as Canada’s ambassador in Washington, the news release issued by Carney made no mention of him taking on the role of chief trade negotiator — a position that Hillman also held. That’s likely for the better as the ambassador should be rising above the day-to-day scrappiness of negotiations and building relationships to advance Canada’s position in the American capital.

Let’s hope that Wiseman’s experience in the business world brings a professionalism to that relationship building that has too often been missing over the last year.