Read Stephen Harper's full speech on the need for Canada to defend its sovereignty against the U.S.

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper delivered the closing speech at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto on Tuesday. The summit was organized by the Liberal government and hosted in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Harper, who currently serves as chairman of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation and is co-founder of the investment fund Vision-One Management, said that Canada was right to walk away from trade talks “must pursue diminished reliance upon the United States” to maintain its sovereignty. Read the full text of the English portions of Harper’s speech, below.

Thank you very much…. Distinguished guests from Canada and around the world, it is an honour to address you today and to formally conclude this summit. I want to express my appreciation on behalf of myself, and on behalf of the 20th prime minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien. I want to express our appreciation to the organizers at CPP, at PSP, and the Government of Canada for inviting us here, and also for giving me the podium today.

The prime minister said to me yesterday, “I really want to thank you for doing this.” I said, “Well, you may want to wait and see what I’m going to say, first.” I used a line from from that famous British TV show, I said, “You know, I am a partisan appointment. Your decision to give me a microphone is a courageous decision, prime minister.”

In any case, I’ve been delighted to attend this event, and even more pleased to see so many familiar faces in this room today. I have met with many of you in your own countries these past few years, and I consider you friends. And I thank you, each and every one of you, for making the journey to spend this time here with us in Canada. I consider your attendance an act of friendship and a vote of confidence in our country at a crucial time.

Now I know that, as board chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, you expect me to speak about Canada as an investment destination, and I will. I tell people at AIMCo, we are not an economic development fund. We are global investors. We seek the best returns from anywhere that we can for our clients. And for all those reasons, we have over 40 per cent of our investments in this country, so we see lots of opportunity in Canada. That’s my AIMCo hat.

However, I am also a former prime minister, and as such, I cannot help but address the current situation that Canada faces. It is a situation in which, given the ongoing violations of our trade agreement by the United States and the current impasse in negotiations, our country felt compelled to walk away and to see a trade war commence in earnest…. This had to be a very difficult decision, but I do believe that our government had no choice but to take this path.

I say that, as one who has long been, and known to be, a great admirer of America, and one who believes that our close proximity and close relationship to the United States has been among this country’s most precious assets.