"Canada has nothing to worry about. The President is a big fan. It's the single best bilateral relationship we have."
This cheery, optimistic talk came from a senior Republican, a strategist who has run top-level GOP campaigns for three decades and has close White House ties. Donald Trump, he was saying, has been educated since coming to office on the healthy dynamics of the bilateral trade relationship. One person whose influence has been key, he said, is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Not just on the trade file but in other domains as well, the former ExxonMobil boss is emerging as a moderating influence, if such is possible, on the President.
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Mr. Tillerson fits the mould of the Trump cabinet in that he is aging, ultra-rich, white and conservative. But he's a departure in that he holds positions on trade, the environment, Russia and multilateralism which find a good degree of compatibility with Ottawa's interests. He's less a nativist, said the insider, than "a product of the interdependence of the world."
The Tillerson tilt – "We like Rex," a top official said – is one that gives Ottawa officials hope. He and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland have met seven times in either bilateral or multilateral forums and have established a good rapport.
The Secretary of State has made it clear to Canadian officials that he expects to have a voice in deliberations on NAFTA, a pact he supports. He's more positive on NATO than Mr. Trump and shares Ms. Freeland's harder line on Vladimir Putin's Russia. He comes across, in counterpose with Trumpians, as environmentally sensitive. He pushed to have the U.S. remain in the Paris climate accord and raised eyebrows in Canada and elsewhere when he failed to show up at the Rose Garden ceremony when the President announced the United States was withdrawing.
New to politics and to Washington, the 65-year-old Texan was deemed to be missing in action during his first couple months on the job. He was not up to speed on big files like the Middle East, which Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, has taken charge of.
But Mr. Tillerson is starting to pull some weight. He has dinner with the President once a week and has built a strong direct relationship, superseding that of the National Security Adviser.
Though he is apt to speak his mind, there are limits. A recent Trump cabinet meeting opened on an unctuous note with the secretaries, including Mr. Tillerson, lining up one by one to sing their praises of the President – what a joy and honour it was to work for him. The obsequiousness appalled a lot of observers.
In light of the "America First" nationalist lean of the Trump administration, Ms. Freeland gave a speech recently signalling that Ottawa would take a stance more independent of Washington's. Thus far. there has been no serious blow back from the State Department.
Traditionally, Ottawa has been served well by its relations with secretaries of state, and that is the hope now. It was through Henry Kissinger's influence, serving under President Gerald Ford at the time, that Canada got membership in the G7. Ottawa had fine relations with George Shultz, who served at Foggy Bottom under Ronald Reagan and with James Baker, George H.W. Bush's foreign affairs pilot who played a key role in free-trade negotiations.
Under George W. Bush, Colin Powell was a friend of Canada's, though he fell into the trap of believing the bunk about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction cache that led to the Iraq War. Condoleezza Rice was a calming hand as foreign secretary given that she had to work with super hawk Dick Cheney. Under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry maintained strong relations with Ottawa.
In some cases, the secretaries have served Ottawa's interests in that they have acted as moderating influences on the White House executives. With the impetuous Mr. Trump at the helm, it's especially important that the Secretary of State carry out that function. In Rex Tillerson, whose perspective is more global than parochial, there is reason to believe that such is the case.
Lawrence Martin