The London Chamber of Commerce would like to congratulate Teresa Armstrong, London-Fanshawe; Terence Kernaghan, London North Centre; Peggy Sattler, London West; and Rob Flack, Elgin-Middlesex-London on their recent re-election as Members of Provincial Parliament for Ontario.

As President Trump’s tariffs take effect, we must ensure that we are working together as a community and taking care of London’s issues. We have been presented with a unique opportunity to develop a cohesive strategy for London with a network that can advocate for our city at the provincial level. We look forward to working closely with them to meet these goals.

As a potential trade war unfolds between Canada and the United States and with a federal election looming in the near future, Canada must turn its attention inwards and focus on strengthening internal trade between provinces. This sentiment has been increasingly popular in the recent months, garnering support from all 4 major political parties in Ontario and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Statistics Canada has estimated that by removing barriers to internal trade, Canada’s GDP per capita could see a boost of 3.8%. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has suggested that this would bolster government revenue by over $15 billion. This would represent a massive boost to an uneasy economic landscape.

Canada is blessed with an abundance of natural resources ? resources that we extract, refine and produce far cleaner than virtually anyone else in the world and with the social license of Canadians and the support of Indigenous communities. Combine that with our capabilities in nuclear and hydro, and we are almost entirely energy secure.

However, that doesn’t mean we can relax - as we continue to grow our economy, we must simultaneously grow our energy capacity, which includes extraction, production, and delivery infrastructure.

And then there is our responsibility to our partners. There are European nations and like-minded countries around the world who are facing economic and energy pressures every day, and that is a problem Canada can help solve. But to solve that problem, we must have the infrastructure in place to get our resources to those distant markets.