Q&A: Robert Fisher talks Trump win, Kathleen Wynne

It was a stunning election result that left us reeling and asking ourselves: what do we do with a President Donald Trump?

Our Ontario Politics Analyst Robert Fisher joined us to talk about it.

Q: Donald Trump, President-elect: what does this mean for Ontario?

Well principally, if I were a worker in the auto sector, or maybe in high tech in Kitchener/Waterloo, I might be pretty worried about what a Trump administration would mean. The president-elect talked during the campaign about scrapping NAFTA. Though it's interesting to note that yesterday on CBC's Power & Politics, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., David MacNaughton, told Rosie Barton that Canada would be willing to look for improvements in the deal. So in terms of relationships between Canadian and American companies, and between the two countries generally, the future of trade could all change.

And it's significant because our economy in this province is tied so closely to the United States. Eighty per cent or more of Ontario exports head to the U.S. Since the election, at Queen's Park this morning and probably in Ottawa too, there is a "wait and see" attitude to determine if President Trump will act the same as Trump the candidate.

"Rhetoric or reality" is the message now, but rest assured, no-one is putting their head in the sand on this election result in this province.

Q: Quite famously, our Prime Minister was very tight-lipped about how he felt about Donald Trump. But yesterday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said she was shocked by the election of Trump, and was very vocal about her feelings. Do you think that was a mistake of the Premier to give that opinion?

Many people were wondering about Justin Trudeau's position, and in hindsight it was certainly the safer position. He is going to have to work with the new president whether he likes him or not personally. I think it wasn't the smartest sort of thing for Ms. Wynne to do, but I think it's pretty obvious some of it had to do with gender, and also the policies President Clinton would have brought to the White House that would be more in line with Wynne's.

But that said, as we've seen in the past, and I think we'll see more of this in the future, is the premier will begin to work a lot more closely with U.S. governors. And Wynne has made it clear since the election results on Tuesday that she's going to step up those efforts. The belief is that she might be able to continue those relationships with the governors that wouldn't exist between Ontario and the U.S. federal government. That's where she's going, because Washington won't have much interest in Ontario issues under a Trump administration.

Q: Rightly or wrongly, the Tories are often seen as Canada's version of the Republicans. Do you think Ontarians see PC leader Patrick Brown as being like Trump?

A: Well, when you go through his CV, he was very Trump-like on Parliament Hill. For example, he was opposed to abortion. He's changed his tone at Queen's Park substantially, believing a successful Ontario PC Party is one that's more politically centrist. And that approach may well be working. 

This week there was a poll out, done for Postmedia, and it showed that Brown's personal support in this province was at 51 per cent. Compare that to Kathleen Wynne at 15. So he's doing something right, but whether he's a changed man, we'll only know as time goes on.

Q: Are there any lessons that Ontario politicians should take away from this?

Absolutely. I think it's pretty clear in the post-election analysis that Americans were voting against the system. It happened to be in Washington, but you could transfer that to Queen's Park. Many people in either place don't believe the system is working — it's not responding to their needs or concerns. There's anger in the province around pocketbook issues like hydro rates. So Kathleen Wynne says she's listening and paying attention to what's happening in the States, but if she can't convince voters she's listening to their concerns about education and healthcare, 2018 could prove a very difficult election for her to win. It could end up that she only smashes through the glass ceiling once — in 2014.