Former Canadian ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman says businesses should prepare for a lasting shift in the country’s economic relationship with its largest trading partner, rather than expect a return to past conditions. “I think we need to find a new path,” Hillman said Thursday in Banff, Alta., as the 27th annual Global Business Forum opened.

The forum is taking place Thursday and Friday at the Fairmont Banff Springs. This year’s theme, “Thriving in Chaos,” brings speakers together to discuss global business, politics, security and other issues facing the international community.

Hillman served as Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2020 until earlier this year. She said companies need to understand that the assumptions behind decades of deeply integrated Canada-U.S. trade have changed. “We have taken for granted that we would have virtually duty-free trade with the United States and a sense of mutual commitment to building deeply integrated economies,” she said.

She warned that business leaders who fail to recognize the change could find their own industries affected. “If CEOs are not paying attention to that and recognizing that, then it could be their sector next, it could happen to them as well,” she said.

The warning comes as trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. remain stalled after talks broke down in August. Tariff measures have escalated on both sides since then, even as the countries remain closely connected economically.

Hillman said the tensions reflect a wider change in how the U.S. sees its relationship with Canada, rather than a dispute limited to one industry. “It is not about a specific sector. It is about a change in perspective and philosophy, or the revelation of a perspective and philosophy that’s probably always been there and is now being actualized through President Trump and his team and his vision,” she said.

For Canadian companies, she said, the shift calls for looking beyond the U.S. market and building resilience at home. “One customer is not a very resilient way to be,” Hillman said. She urged businesses to pursue opportunities to raise domestic sales, strengthen the Canadian market and diversify their customers.

She said the pressures could also lead Canada to become more self-reliant and change how it approaches its southern neighbour. Canadians have often understood the relationship through partnership, with Canada acting as a supportive junior partner to the U.S., Hillman said. “I think that Canadians have this sense of sort of the wingman, right, and that we’re there, and we’re going to be the best junior partner that you’ve got to help do all your stuff,” she said.

Hillman said Americans place more emphasis on their own national interests. “Ultimately, Americans understand their own sense of fighting for their country, being American, being patriotic, doing things for themselves, doing things for their country and their individual interest within that context,” she said.

She added that Canadians are gaining a clearer understanding of that outlook, which could spur action on longstanding issues. Hillman cited interprovincial trade, major infrastructure projects and energy development as areas where Canada could make progress. “We’ve been talking about this for generations, but we haven’t, or at least not our generation, and we haven’t done it, and now we are going to do it.”

Greater self-reliance does not necessarily mean distancing Canada from the United States, she said. Instead, Canada could approach the relationship from a different position and make more deliberate choices about where deeper economic integration serves its interests. “I think understanding that and taking a bit of that attitude ourselves is going to make us a stronger country,” Hillman said.

Hillman expects Canada and the U.S. to remain close partners. She said the relationship could be stronger if Canadians approach it with a clearer understanding of their own interests.

Based on reporting by CTV News Calgary.