Wynne fears for U.S. trade

States account for 80.5% of Ontario’s export market

A “shocked” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is expressing hope U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s anti-trade rhetoric was just campaign bluster.

Speaking to the Star on Wednesday, Wynne said she is “worried” about Trump’s threat to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement that is so vital to Ontario’s economy.

“My biggest fear . . . is the trade relationship,” the premier said, mindful the United States is far and away the province’s most important trading partner, accounting for 80.5 per cent of Ontario exports.

“The degree that this undermines a North American strategy, I think we have to worry about that,” said Wynne, noting Ontario’s auto industry is so entwined with Michigan’s that they are interdependent.

She is also concerned about the impact of a Trump presidency and a Republican Congress on efforts to tackle climate change.

Trump has called global warming a “Chinese hoax” perpetrated to hobble American manufacturing.

“We’ve made a lot of progress on the climate change discussion globally and if we’ve got a president who really doesn’t see the importance of that, it puts so much at risk,” she said.

Wynne emphasized there are lessons for leaders around the world from Trump’s surprise victory that few pollsters had foreseen.

Voters — especially in rust-belt states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — feel the system is stacked against them, she said.

“We know we’re stronger if we have a fair society.

“What’s happened in the United States really emphasizes that.”