At the Toronto Global Forum, former Trump adviser Steve Cortes calls Canadians to strengthen domestic industries amid rising U.S. protectionism.
TORONTO, Oct. 17, 2025 – Former Trump adviser and CNN Political Commentator Steve Cortés joined a keynote fireside conversation at the Toronto Global Forum with Giles Gherson, President and CEO of Toronto Region Board of Trade, calling on Canadians to strengthen domestic industries and reduce reliance on U.S. market access as global trade grows more protectionist.
“My advice for Canadians: focus more on Canada, okay? You have a big market here, right? Of course, we’re always going to continue to trade with each other. But make Canada great again. Start being protectionist in Canada. You could be really successful without the United States, if you need to be,” Steve Cortes said outlining how Canada should respond to new American tariffs and the evolving U.S. economic strategy.
Cortes also added that, from his perspective as a non-Canadian observer, Canada might consider placing greater limits on immigration as part of a broader effort to strengthen its domestic economy:
“And by the way, I would argue – from my point of view, I’m not Canadian, so I’m not telling you what to do – you should start restricting immigration,” he added linking the issue to his argument for national protectionism and self-sufficiency.
Cortes acknowledged the long-stading economic partnership between Canada and the U.S. specifying two landmark North American trade deals – the 1965 Auto Pact and the 1988Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement – which eliminated most of tariffs on vehicles, parts and other goods between the two countries.
The historical cooperation doesn’t promise special treatment for Canada in present although Cortes agreed that Canada is“different from every other country in the world”: “I understand that you want to be treated differently. Canada is going to suffer some of the consequences that admittedly are not its fault, because it has mostly been a very fair trading partner with the United States, who probably deserves to be treated differently. But it’s not going to happen.”
Cortes stated that the U.S. remains a “financial colossus” over the last 30-40 years: wealthy, innovative, and globally dominant in AI and tech space. But this prosperity is “incredibly concentrated” and worked very well for elites, but to the detriment of working class groups. This imbalance explains why the Trump administration prioritized protectionism and isolationism, which he noted are “no longer dirty terms” among conservatives.
He contrasted the past and present through a personal example: growing up in a six-child, middle-class family supported by one income was once common but is now unattainable for most Americans.
“Only the wealthy ones have the luxury of a stay-at-home parent,” he noted. “Families should have the option to thrive on a single income. That is simply not possible in the United States today.”
He emphasized that the U.S. is currently vastly changing an economic system that dominated in the world for the last 80 years since World War II. Steve Cortes believes that those vectors are beneficial not only for the United States but will also make Canada, Latin America and the world stronger. Altough “the world” particularly means Trump allies.
Probably that comes from his intention that countries would reevaluate their trade relations and economy and adapt to a more self-focused, competitive trade environment shifting from decades of economic cooperation and merging with theU.S – everybody should become even more inward-looking to Cortes’ opinion.
At the same time, the speaker insisted that the U.S. should prioritize the Americas over any other region in the world. To strengthen this point, he mentioned that the Trump’s government has no national interest in Ukraine: “That is absolute nonsense for the United States to be spending our time and taking those kinds of risks in terms of antagonizing Russia for taking Ukraine”.
His proposal on how to make America great again includes:
• Impose a universal 10% tariff on all imports from all countries;
• Add higher “reciprocity tariffs” on nations whose trade practices disadvantage the U.S;
• Impose substantial tariffs on China for the “predatory” behavior enabled by its entry into the WTO, which he called a “bipartisan failure” that decimated American businesses.
Cortes concluded that the current wave of the U.S. nationalism is not a temporary phase. It’s a start of a longer poitical period that will extend beyond the remaining 3.5 years of President Trump’s term. He cautioned that the pre-Trump global order after the next U.S. election is unlikely to happen and predicted that Senator J.D. Vance would likely to continue the same agenda after. “It’s not going to be 3.5 years, because after that we’re going to have 8 years of J.D. Vance, who, if anything, is a little bit more insistent on these issues than President Trump”.
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The Toronto Global Forum (TGF) was launched in 2006 and is hosted by the IEFA in association with Integra Capital. The TGF gathers international thought leaders across business, government and civil society to discuss the major challenges, and subsequent opportunities, the world economy is facing today.
