Trump threatens world harmony, Canada: expert

BANFF, Alta. — A British globalization expert says if Americans elect Donald Trump as president in November it will set back world harmony and be especially harmful for Canada because it’s “joined at the hip” with the United States.

Oxford University professor Ian Goldin says the advances in world health and wealth of the past few decades have come about in large part because of growing connectivity between people and nations.

Trump, the Republican Party candidate, represents the contrary view that the connected world is responsible for problems in the U.S., Goldin says. He adds that if Trump is able to put those ideas into force, it will result in a much more dangerous world and likely in lower standards of living for Americans.

He says a Trump-led country would be less able to respond to global threats including climate change, pandemics, cascading financial crises and cyberattacks.

Goldin told reporters after a speech at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., that Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton is less likely to disrupt world unity because she is more experienced and more “predictable.”

Trump has promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, and pull the U.S. out of a proposed Pacific trade pact with 11 other nations if elected.