Canada’s former ambassador to the United States says this country simply cannot “ride out” the current trade strife with the United States.
Kirsten Hillman built her speech around this message in Edmonton on Thursday, Sept. 10, at the 2026 Alberta Industrial Heartland Association annual conference, a gathering of major players forming the industries that make up the business area in and around the Alberta capital.
“You’re exactly what our country needs right now,” said Hillman, who served as the country’s ambassador from 2020 to February 2026. “You’re exactly the kind of example that should be set.”
Canada’s economic relationship with the United States played a major role in shaping the conference’s tone, with former natural resources minister Seamus O’Regan attending with a message calling on Canada to embrace the moment.
The United States and Canada have been locked in a trade dispute, one that dates back to American President Donald Trump’s re-taking office in January 2025 and almost immediately levying tariffs on Canada.
Trade tensions were heightened recently when the two sides broke off talks on a new deal, leading each side to accuse the other of sabotaging the agreement.
The Trump administration responded by angrily levying more tariffs, leading the Carney Liberal government to retaliate with dollar-for-dollar levies.
“This is not necessarily an administration that is deeply wedded to the facts of our relationship,” said Hillman bluntly.
The Industrial Heartland is described as the third-largest industrial cluster on the planet, with one of its biggest developments being the Meta AI data centre.
Meta, the California-based tech conglomerate that owns Facebook and Instagram, is spending $13 billion to build the data centre, which is one of many going up in the area.
The Edmonton area is also home to multiple pipelines and energy infrastructure, which is Alberta’s primary economic driver. That infrastructure is also responsible for providing most of the oil and gas in the United States. According to data from the Business Council of Alberta, the United States receives around four million barrels of crude oil from Canada.
President Donald Trump and his Republican administration have frequently stated that they want business to be done in America, something Hillman says offers Canada a unique opportunity to seize.
After her speech, Hillman sat down for a fireside chat in which she addressed Alberta’s economic drivers and their importance during this dispute with the United States.
“This is why resilience remains important,” she said. “And this is why I think what you guys are doing here is so important with finding other options and continuing to make yourself as indispensable as possible to our biggest customer.”
While Hillman noted the importance of being a stable, trusted partner to the United States, the attentive audience taking in her every word also absorbed her message about how a united Canada navigates its relationship with a more transactional United States of America.
“This will come to pass,” said Hillman. “When will it? I do not know. But it will only come to pass, I think, when on the U.S. side, that those kind of terms can never be acceptable.”
Copyright 2026, St. Albert Gazette. All rights reserved.
David Boles, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, St. Albert Gazette.