Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the U.S. and Canada are “the closest partners in the world” and need to focus on how much they have in common instead of focusing on temporary trade disputes.
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His comments come following Canada’s disastrous hosting of the G7 summit in Quebec City and President Donald Trump’s latest tweets denouncing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “meek, mild and dishonest.” (RELATED: President Trump Slams ‘Dishonest And Weak’ G7 Performance From Trudeau)
”When we have those disagreements, we keep those disagreements isolated to the issues we’re disagreeing with because on other things…we’re on the same page,” he said. “We’re the closest partners in the world and you don’t want to see one particular dispute poison everything.”
Harper said he can’t understand why the U.S. is so focused on Canada as a trade threat. “Canada is the biggest single purchaser of U.S. goods and services in the world. It’s not China, it’s not Mexico, it’s not Britain, it’s not Germany — it’s Canada.”
The former Conservative prime minister who spent almost a decade in office said Trump should ask himself just who is audience is with his anti-Canadian rhetoric. “I don’t think even Trump supporters think the Canadian trade relationship is a problem.”
Harper said good relations between the two countries is “vitally important” to maintain national security in both countries.
Speaking to the historic meeting between the U.S. and North Korea, Harper also said although he remained “a skeptic” of North Korea’s intentions, he gave Trump “a lot of credit for bringing it this far.”
Harper also promoted his new book, “Right Here, Right Now.”