By Andrew Macdonald
Maritime Business
Andrew Macdonald: Halifax lawyer chair of American Chamber of Commerce Atlantic branch
Halifax cross-border lawyer Derek Brett is in his first year as chair of the Atlantic Canada chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce.
The former Orlando resident emigrated in 2012 to Metro Halifax with his wife and then nine-year-old daughter.
The American chamber branch is known as AmCham Atlantic. On its website, the organization states it “continues to hold events throughout Atlantic Canada to promote bilateral trade and business relations between Atlantic Canada and the United States. We also work closely with the U.S. consulate located in Halifax, and several U.S. states with Atlantic Canada interests.”
Brett was elected to head the regional chair last fall.
I recently had a chat with Brett, who also teaches business law at St. Mary’s University.
In his role as chair, he helps improve the business environment so American and Canadian companies can do business in each other’s countries.
“I help connect business opportunities so they can be located in Canada or somewhere in the United States. The American chamber works with governments, here in Nova Scotia, Ottawa or Washington, to build on trade relations,” said Brett.
I asked Brett how many Americans live in Atlantic Canada. “The number is quite large,” he noted and quoted a CBC news item from three years ago that reported 620,000 Americans are living in Canada, although it was not able to pinpoint how many live in the Maritimes.
“But we can certainly say there are tens of thousands of American ex-pats living in the four Atlantic provinces.”
There is a historical connection between Nova Scotia and New England, as Bluenosers went to find jobs there, and certain generations have described New England as the Boston States. And, since the 1940s, N.S.’s government has sent a Christmas tree to Boston, in the reminder of the American assistance to victims of the Halifax Explosion of 1917.
“Our role really is for business purposes, connecting various businesses.”
The AmCham chapter works with Export Canada and has a close relationship with the Boston consul general, now occupied by former Trudeau cabinet minister Bernadette Jordan, who succeeded Rodger Cuzner, the latter resigned before his five-year term expired. He is now a Liberal senator in Ottawa.
AmCham Atlantic facilitates not just outgoing trade but incoming trade, “especially with the niche industries that we have here in the Atlantic provinces, whether it is the oceans industry (and) the seafood industry comes to mind and these industries are seen as having growth. I know from conversations with people in the United States there is a genuine interest in how U.S. trade coming into Atlantic Canada can provide mutual benefit.”
Brett said both the U.S. and the Canadian governments recognize the value of having a strong American chamber in Canada and for Atlantic Canada.
Brett’s term as chair can last three to five years. The board in Atlantic Canada recommended him for the post and it was approved by the American chamber.
Brett practices with Burnside Law Group, in the Halifax region, and specializes in U.S.-Canada cross-border files, civil litigation, commercial transactions, labour and employment, commercial-white collar, internet, and tax law.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and the threat of Donald Trump
Brett, stressing his political views were his personal views and he was not commenting in his official capacity as chair of the regional American chamber, spoke about the meaning of U.S. presidential contender, Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota.
“I certainly hope (Donald) Trump is defeated. I see Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. as existential threats to U.S. democracy. Obviously, I am not the only one, as Americans from across the political spectrum – including, most recently, those as ‘ultra-conservative’ as former Vice-President Dick Cheney – hold this same perspective.
“The positive political impact of Biden’s sacrifice (withdrawal from the race) is already apparent. With record-setting fundraising for the Harris-Walz ticket; the new and vibrant energy generated by the new ticket; and the success of the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party – perhaps across the board – has breathed new life. Meanwhile, the Trump ticket looks old, stale, weird and dangerous.”
Brett added Harris is, as witnessed during the recent Democratic National Convention, a fine public speaker.
“I find she is an engaging speaker, with an appealing personal and professional history. For our times she is, next to the Obamas, perhaps the best public speaker on the Democrat side. I cannot see anybody on the Republican side matching that amount of ability, intelligence and verve in presenting to the people.
“I also believe, in Governor Walz, we have someone who furthers the connection to the middle and working classes, providing a relatable back story and down-home appeal,” said Brett. “And because Harris-Walz has effectively blunted this Trump-Vance narrative, the GOP campaign has been blunted.”
As for Trump’s running mate, the only thing he has achieved is to occasionally take negative publicity away from Trump.
“With someone like Vance, it again shines the light on the problem with having a second Trump administration allowing that Republican Party, as opposed to Republicans of the past, to acquire power.”
“We see this on a foreign policy issue, where once again even most recently as the unique X/Twitter interview with Elon Musk, we see Trump cozying up to the likes of Putin and Kim Jong Un (North Korea) and President Xi Jinping in China. And that is a huge problem, where you shower praise on people who have been seen traditionally been U.S. foes on global foreign and economic and human rights policies, while you continue to shower scorn on our traditional allies and on NATO, that is a huge issue because the question ultimately is … what side are you on, Donald Trump?
“He is not on the side of world democracy. He is not on the side of the interests that the U.S. has been protecting and safeguarding since the end of the Second World War. That is a huge, overwhelming issue,” he added.
“And then when you look at what this might do to unravel not just the U.S. economy – if the U.S. economy comes down, there is a domino effect with globalization on every other economy. Already, a recent forecast by Goldman Sach reveals that the Harris-Walz economic plan will grow the U.S. economy, while Trump’s tariff-heavy ambitions will only shrink the U.S. economy. The impact will not be limited to U.S. borders, and will readily spread across the globe – especially to the U.S.’s most prominent trading partner: Canada.”
Brett says the economic question is a complex one, but history provides us with context: “We see what happens and we see the overall reaction to a simplistic view of economic policy, which is what Trump-Vance is advancing. We can readily envision what would happen if we returned to the Trump years of massive tariffs, whether they were on other allies or, as we witnessed, those targeting Canada. We look at other forms of protectionism which do not seem to elevate the U.S. economy but end up without having the nuanced perspective of the person we expect sitting in the White House. The absence of such a nuanced perspective will ultimately undermine the overall health of the U.S. and global economies,” he explained.
“These are the things we need to fear from a second Trump administration,” he added.
“But perhaps the biggest thing here, regardless of anything else, is what the existential threat is to civil liberties. The existential threat is that we hear him explicitly declare that he wants to be a dictator. He has revenge plans on his political opponents. He wants to rein in the power of the free press. He wants to target vulnerable minority populations.
“On the international front, Trump-Vance wants to do something to undermine the status of the United States in NATO. It wants to end the war with Ukraine, which cannot be ended readily unless he is going to bully Ukraine into giving up areas that are Ukrainian to the Russian aggressors. This is a huge issue.
“We have not even talked about what this could mean in the Middle East and what we are seeing with the Gaza crisis.
“These are complex issues, and complex issues require serious minds exercising critical thinking and perspective. We can see from Donald Trump there is no serious mind there, and the people he surrounds himself with are arguably worse than the people he surrounded himself with eight years ago. This is a scary situation.”
Andrew Macdonald is a Halifax-based business and political journalist with an online publication called The Macdonald Notebook. He writes a biweekly column focused on Maritime business issues for Brunswick News.
