Republican, pro-Trump U.S. senator is Canada’s unlikeliest fan

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Their bond was strengthened in part by her own youth, when she spent summers at her grandparents’ farm near Goodlands, Man., about 10 kilometres from the North Dakota border, and sometimes crossed into the state to get pizza.

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“I told the president once ‘You know, this idea of Canada as a 51st state is really dumb,’ “ Cramer says. “But I said ‘I would take Saskatchewan and Manitoba and Alberta as three states. They’re practically us, you know.’ ”

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Hillman, now a distinguished fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, said the senator is one of many Republican members of Congress who would like to see a friendlier approach to Canada. A resolution calling for the tariffs to be rescinded was supported by four GOP senators – Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, and Lisa Murkowski (though not Cramer). But he stands out as the lawmaker who is closest to Trump, said the ex-ambassador.

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A former tourism and economic development director in the North Dakota state government, Cramer grew up at a time when the northern border was almost a formality. The family would drive the short distance to Killarney Lake in Manitoba, merely waving to customs officers on both sides in lieu of showing passports, he says. He has an uncle who lives in Revelstoke, B.C., and Canadian cousins.

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Cramer was elected to the House of Representatives on his third try in 2010, then ran successfully for a Senate seat in 2018.

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He’s without question a “hard-core” conservative, says Mark Jendrysik, a political science professor at the University of North Dakota who once had Cramer talk to his class. The senator has opposed abortion and same-sex marriage and wrote the energy platform for Trump’s 2016 campaign that favoured more oil production and downplayed climate-change science. His politics are in keeping with the general leanings of the state, one of the few where Trump’s approval ratings have stayed over 50 per cent, said Jendrysik.

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But at the same time he’s not one of the “culture-war flame throwers” who have a tight grip on the North Dakota Republican Party, the type of people who call Democrats communists and tout Trump as the greatest president in American history, the professor said.

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Still, his loyalty to Trump – and the views of North Dakotans who realize their economy relies heavily on Canada – makes it possible for him to oppose the White House’s protectionist policies, said Jendrysik.

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“He has absolutely no worry about re-election, to put it bluntly, so he can afford this small break from Trumpian orthodoxy, because local people think he’s defending their local interests.”

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Those interests are fairly clear. North Dakota’s exports to Canada – mostly oil but also farm machinery and agricultural goods – have ranged from $4 billion to $6 billion annually in recent years, 70-80 per cent of its total exports. Cramer said that trade is by design deeply intertwined, each side playing to its strengths.

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“A hog crosses the border multiple times before it becomes bacon,” he says, evoking the kind of international connectivity often cited by the auto industry.

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Trump has taken a very different view of the economic relationship. Though much of what is sold back and forth moves tariff-free for now under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement – and his first wave of duties was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court – Canadian automobiles, steel, aluminum and lumber still face punishing tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump is eager to see more goods produced in America and has said “we don’t need anything” from Canada. He recently threatened to impose 50-per-cent tariffs and block certification on imported Canadian aircraft because a regulator here was taking too long to approve new American jets, and said he might block a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor paid for by Canada.