Top Leaders Speak to the North American Advantage at the US-Canada Summit

During the 2024 US-Canada Summit that we hosted with Eurasia Group, we sat down with top leaders to discuss the importance of the US-Canada Relationship and the opportunities they are seeing.

"There's so much connection between our two countries. I mean, we're different countries, different histories, but you think about the familial connections across the border, millions of them. There, you think about all the business connections, millions of them. You think of all the trade that crosses the longest undefended border in the world. Shared language, many shared cultural values. So, you know, we really have a symmetry between our two countries, and we both bring something different to the table, for sure. We fit sort of perfectly together, with both our differences, but also all the things that we share in common."

-- Christy Clark, Former Premier of British Columbia --

“We're at the beginning of the AI evolution, and it's going to evolve. But we're fairly confident that AI is going to be a major part of all of our lives in a very helpful way. It's going to make us all more productive, and it's going to provide more job satisfaction, more growth, more productivity, and grow our economies.” 

--Gary Cohn, Vice Chairman, IBM; former Director, National Economic Council--

"This idea of building retrofits is one of the pillars of our green investing strategy. And if we're going to be net zero by 2050, 80 percent of the buildings that will be standing in 2050 are standing today. And a fifth of all of our emissions come from our buildings. We're sitting here in downtown Toronto; all the buildings around us are part of our journey to net zero. And how do you invest to decarbonize them is critical.” 

-- Ehren Cory, CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) --

“Having worked for 137 years in the U.S. and almost as many years in Canada, we think very carefully about the health and well-being of people both North and South of the border. And what the panel highlighted today was that even in times of stress, such as the pandemic, the importance of collaborating around health is really paramount. And obviously we hope in times of a little bit less tension, like now, we can still look at collaborations around life science, around finding great new innovations. New medicines that we can bring to patients both north and south of the border.”

-- Berkeley Vincent, President of Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine --

“There's very few economic bilateral relationships in the world that are as well-balanced, that are as mutually beneficial as what's shared between Canada and the United States. Common values, common cultures. A lot of diversity on both sides and a lot of productivity that comes out of it for the two countries, but also for the rest of the world.”

-- Mark Nasr, Executive Vice President Marketing and Digital, and President of Aeroplan Air Canada --

"Well, the North American advantage is no longer an option that we talk about. It's a requirement. The new world that we are in right now as we decouple from China, as the geopolitical plates are shifting, and so on, we don't have the luxury of thinking that there might be a plan B or plan C. Plan A, North America is what we have, and that's what we've got to go for, especially in the areas of energy, in the areas of critical minerals, in all the things that really come down to how does this economy, this great continental economy, work. The fact of the matter is if you put Canada and the United States together, we can do it. You put them separately, and we're both in trouble. That's why it's a requirement, not an option."

-- Tom Clark, Consul General of Canada in New York, United States --