CANADA needs real change in our relationship with the United States if we are to build our future economic success, said Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau on Monday at a Canada 2020 event.

“Under the Harper Conservatives, we have less influence in Washington and our relationship with the US is worse than it was a decade ago. This has to change if we want to ensure prosperity for all Canadians,” said Trudeau. “Mr. Harper has been divisive and hyper-partisan, and consequently, Canada has missed vital opportunities to work with the United States on major economic and environmental issues.”

Trudeau asserted that one of the most important responsibilities of a prime minister is to successfully manage our country’s relationship with the US, by seeing where our unique national interests and theirs overlap. This includes making progress on issues like climate change and clean prosperity, and our relationship with Mexico.

Trudeau committed a Liberal government to:

* restoring cooperation by speaking regularly with the US President, and hosting a trilateral summit with our North American partners;

* immediately working to lift Mexican visa requirements;

* pushing for a North American agreement on clean energy and the environment;

* working together to further reduce impediments to trade and commerce, and increase continental security;

* and establishing a cabinet committee to oversee Canada’s relations with the US.

“Diplomacy is easy when you are working with people who agree with you. It is most challenging — and most urgently needed — when the common interest requires you to put deep differences aside to build solutions to shared problems,” said Trudeau. “Liberals will bring real change to the way we manage our relationship with the United States, the way we see our place on this continent, and in the broader world.”