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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople cheer as President Donald Trump speaks at the Port of Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n
Moreno proudly said he voted for U.S. President Donald Trump three times and he\u2019d vote for him a fourth time if he could. He\u2019s a veteran who moved from Michigan to Texas three years ago to help raise a grandchild born with a disability.<\/p>\n
What little he thinks he knows about Canada appears to have been culled from right-wing social media platforms that are increasingly parroting narratives from Alberta separatists.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada wanted to be a state,\u201d Moreno told The Canadian Press last week.<\/p>\n
For a long time, Canada was quiet about its contributions to the U.S economy, said Laura Dawson, an expert on Canada-U.S. relations and the executive director of the Future Borders Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did fly under the radar for so many years and in some ways it was a benefit,\u201d Dawson said.<\/p>\n
Texas imported $38.6 billion in goods from Canada in 2024, with automobiles, aircraft and oil topping the list. Texas also sells a lot to Canada \u2014 $36.6 billion in exports in 2024.<\/p>\n
A report by the Future Borders Coalition released last year also pointed to Canadian private sector investors like Brookfield that have made large-scale commitments to data centres and energy infrastructure in Texas, and to the massive investment footprint of Canada\u2019s public pensions.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s low-profile approach may no longer be working, Dawson said.<\/p>\n
American support for free trade has plummeted and was dropping even before Trump\u2019s return to the White House. While Canada might not be the main target of all that anger, Dawson said, it risks getting swept aside by it unless it does a better job of educating Americans about the benefits of trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very few businesses in Texas, or politicians, who think badly of Canada,\u201d she said. \u201cBut Canada will often be lumped into foreign traders and actions against foreign traders, whether that\u2019s Mexico or China.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA, is up for mandatory review this year. The continental trade pact, negotiated during the first Trump administration, has shielded Canada and Mexico from the brunt of Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n
While Prime Minister Mark Carney has worked to diversify Canada\u2019s trading markets, Dawson said geography ensures that trade with the United States will remain important for many industries.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was in Mexico this week for CUSMA negotiations. Talks between Washington and Ottawa have yet to officially launch.<\/p>\n
Texans are much more aware of issues with Mexico. They will freely share their concerns about manufacturing jobs moving south, or frustrations over drugs and people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Many will also say trade with Mexico is important.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of Mexican representation in Texas, from business associations to research and policy organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canada does have a consulate general in Dallas and some other business organizations, but Dawson said it\u2019s a much smaller presence and they\u2019re run \u201con a shoestring budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without those long-standing relationships, Dawson said, many Americans who hear the president claim that large amounts of fentanyl are crossing the border with Canada \u2014 a claim that is not supported by U.S. government data \u2014 are more likely to believe it.<\/p>\n
Canadians have been obsessively talking about the country\u2019s trading relationship and investments in the United States since Trump began his campaign of tariffs and erratic threats of annexation. It\u2019s not the same for Texans.<\/p>\n
Scott Curtis, a Texan and retired NASA employee, said he recognizes he doesn\u2019t know many details about bilateral trade but he assumes that \u201cCanada is more dependent on the U.S. than we are on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extremes in both countries are the loudest,\u201d Curtis said in Houston last week. \u201cThe average Texan and the average Canadian would just like to exchange some gulf shrimp for some maple syrup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political-science professor at the University of Houston, said Canada is not discussed much in Texas. People who work in industries with close ties to Canada, like oil and energy, are aware of the relationship but that information doesn\u2019t filter down to the general public, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think most people \u2014 voters or even party officials \u2014 are talking much about the Canada-Texas energy ties,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say they\u2019re not important, because they definitely are.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Canadian businesses and provincial leaders, particularly those from Western Canada, have more long-standing relationships with their Texan counterparts, \u201cyou will see very few official Ottawa delegations,\u201d Dawson said.<\/p>\n
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson travelled to Houston in March for the CERAWeek energy conference. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was also in Texas the same month and met with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Dawson said Ottawa needs to make an \u201cinstitutional investment\u201d in Canada-U.S. diplomacy \u2014 not just for the CUSMA review or the remainder of Trump presidency, but in the interests of long-term stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cGermany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Britain, France \u2026 all of those countries are highly, highly invested in outreach and public education in the United States on commercial interests that Canada\u2019s just not doing, has not been doing for years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Texan Louise Bennet said she knows that trade between Canada and the United States is important. Stopping to get her weekly groceries in Houston, Bennet said Canada needs to speak up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t they?\u201d she said. \u201cIf they are trying to do trade and want people to know, they should be loud about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Piling his shopping bags into his vehicle\u2019s trunk outside a Houston grocery store last week, Texan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":{"0":"post-620928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}