The Air Canada strike has has exposed how corporations manipulate government intervention to sidestep fair bargaining. With flight attendants underpaid, passengers stranded, and Ottawa stepping in, the dispute shows how workers’ rights erode when companies stall negotiations, betting the state will force employees back to work.

When compared to price that Canada is already being asked to pay, the cost of walking away from a trade agreement with the US is not so high. Free trade with the US was always a mixed bag. The original Canada-US free trade agreement cost Canada hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, and left Canada economically dependent on the US.

Canada could be an educational superpower. Taking advantage of the brain-drain from the US, we could recruit the best and brightest to fill our labs, faculty lounges, and classrooms. By leading the world in research, we could build back up some credibility and soft power on the world stage. But we need to fix our own long-neglected system first.

To hear a Liberal prime minister speak so sceptically about free trade would have been unthinkable just months ago, but Donald Trump’s trade war is an occasion for assessing what kind of industrial policy Canada should pursue. Greater economic nationalism benefitted Canada in the past. Maybe it’s time to chart a new course.

Canadian conservatism was at one time a nation-building ideology aimed at stability, order, and “good government.” This is why Conservative governments in Canada contributed to building public institutions, and economic policies which advanced Canadian interests ahead of neoliberal ideology. No hint of this communitarian ethic remains in Canadian conservatism today.