Prime Minister Mark Carney’s appointment of Mark Wiseman as Canada’s next ambassador to the US pairs a front-line trade posting with an envoy whose published record argues Canada is “in freefall” and in need of competition-driven reform.
Wiseman is set to assume the Washington role on February 15, 2026, replacing Kirsten Hillman, in time for the 2026 USMCA review cycle.
Observers has also pointed to a Globe And Mail opinion he wrote in April 2024 where he argued for “bold change” to address Canada’s productivity and competitiveness, including criticism of supply management barriers.
“Simply put, we are falling further behind in our standard of living without realizing it. Canada has become a nation of complacency,” Wiseman said in the article.
In the article, Wiseman’s macro claim is framed in living-standards terms: real GDP per capita “has deteriorated,” and since 2015, Canada’s real GDP per capita growth is cited at 0.4% annually, described as one percentage point below the advanced-economy average.
He also links the slowdown to “non-existent, timid or ineffectual” policymaking and a corporate environment shaped by incumbency.
To address this, Wiseman calls recent Competition Act amendments a “necessary first step,” but argues “major outdated laws” plus provincial trade barriers and supply management restrictions still suppress broad-based competition. He names the Bank Act, Investment Canada Act, and the CRTC Act as examples that “set the bar obstructively high for foreign entrants.”
He then highlights a Wilson report proposal to reverse the onus for Investment Canada Act reviews so the government must justify blocking a transaction rather than investors proving “net benefit.”
“By protecting the status quo, we are breeding large companies indifferent toward innovation – confident they will likely be protected against new contenders, as the telcos have been, or big enough to snap them up, as the banks have been,” he added.
On R&D, he cites the Hamilton Center for Industrial Strategy as finding that in 2021, US companies spent roughly 10 times more than Canadian ones on R&D on a GDP-adjusted basis. It also cites Canadian advanced-sector R&D spending moving from 68% below the global average to 78% below it from 2013 to 2021, while remaining behind the global average “in all sectors.”
Wiseman cites that fewer than 2% of Canadian businesses are said to incorporate R&D into strategy, and government innovation incentives are described as costly while failing to “move the needle.” The article also cites The Logic as finding a quarter of funding from the SR&ED tax incentive program went to foreign subsidiaries rather than Canadian businesses.
Supply management is treated as a high-salience policy example. The article describes import restrictions, production quotas, and price controls as securing markets for protected incumbents, impeding innovation, and keeping prices “artificially high.” It then cites $4.8-billion committed in 2022 to supply-managed farmers who lost market share, and an additional $89 million injected “early this year” into the poultry industry to help processors adapt to market changes.
For Canada–US diplomacy, the key tension is structural. Wiseman arrives at a time that US-Canada relations are tense following the tariff onslaught and the US Trade Representative’s recent list on policies to review ahead of the CUSMA renewal.
READ: USTR Targets Canada’s Dairy And Digital Rules In CUSMA Review
Wiseman is a Bay Street and global-asset-management veteran who previously ran the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as CEO, later became a senior managing director at BlackRock as global head of active equities, and also managed investments at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Outfits report Wiseman is a friend of Carney, and the Prime Minister’s Office says Wiseman is already a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-US Relations, positioning him as an inside-track pick.
Information for this story was found via The Globe And Mail and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
