Jeffrey Crelinsten is the owner and CEO of Research Money Inc. and publisher of Research Money. He is also president and CEO of The Impact Group.

With the new round of tariffsrecently announced by U.S. President Donald Trum the immediate question journalists, commentators, pundits and political junkies are asking is “how should Canada respond?”

There are several camps. Some say retaliate further. Some say keep trying to get back to the negotiating table. Others say hunker down and focus on building Canada. I’m inclined to agree with the latter.

To those calling for more retaliation, there are pros and cons. Since I’m no economist, nor do I work in the affected sectors, I’ll leave it to the Prime Minister and his team to decide on this one.

To those calling for continued negotiation, I’d remind them that Mr. Trump has a different agenda and that it’s a waste of time to continue trying to negotiate with him.

I agree with those calling for enhanced efforts to build Canada because when confronted by a stronger adversary, it’s best to focus on building your own strength rather than to engage directly.

I’m reminded of my experience many years ago with the Japanese board game, Go. I was a graduate student at the University of Toronto, where I met a professor who was looking for someone to play Go with. I had never heard of the game, but it looked interesting and the prof was a cool guy, so we agreed to meet once a week at lunchtime to play for an hour.

Go is a game about capturing territory. The board is covered with intersecting straight lines. Each player gets a pile of stones, black or white, resembling Smarties (the candy). Players take turns placing a stone on the intersection points. The goal is to surround as many empty intersections as you can. The player who accumulates the most territory is the winner.

In order to make the contest between a novice and an experienced player balanced and fair, the Go board is designed so the novice can have a handicap. Nine strategically placed intersections are highlighted where the novice can place a stone before the game starts. I began my journey with a nine handicap.

At first, whenever the prof placed a stone, I would place one nearby to try to prevent him from building territory. I always lost these skirmishes. After all, he was the stronger player.

It wasn’t long before I discovered a better strategy. Wherever he placed a stone, I placed a stone in a different part of the board, far from his. Since I already had nine stones in strategic locations, I was able to build territory more quickly. I started to win.

Gradually we reduced my handicap from nine to eight to seven and ultimately to none. When we played with no handicap, the strategy still worked. I avoided directly engaging him and focused on building territory in my own areas.

It’s the same with this tariff situation. The U.S. is the stronger player. While some counter-tariffs have sound reasons, the better overall strategy is to build our own economy.

Take alcohol. If B.C. wine is banned entirely from the U.S. market, how about opening up the markets in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and the three territories? The combined market of these 12 jurisdictions is much larger than the B.C. market. It may not be as big as the U.S., but it’s an improvement.

I’ve been flummoxed by the lethargic and reluctant pace of our provincial leaders in dismantling trade and non-trade barriers among their jurisdictions. The recent round of tariffs is a clarion call to our premiers and their teams: get your collective acts together, shut down the regional lobbyists yipping at your heels, and finally build a national market.

Another important building strategy for Canada is diversifying trade. The federal government has already been doing the groundwork on this front. The next step is to create opportunities for Canadian firms to sell to customers in these new trade partner countries.

To accelerate export opportunities for Canadian firms, however, procurement needs focused attention. Giving Canadian firms a leg up as a domestic customer will not only help them grow, but will also give them a credibility boost when they sell globally.

The pace of change on the procurement file has also been painfully slow. Incumbent suppliers have an outsized voice that is difficult to ignore. But if we’re going to build a global export economy, it’s high time governments, public institutions and Canadian corporations start listening to Canadian founders who offer innovative solutions for Canada and the world.

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