Open this photo in gallery: People board the bus at Burrard and Dunsmuir in Vancouver, B.C. on March 19.Isabella Falsetti/The Globe and Mail Reece Martin is a writer and online content creator as well as an independent public transport consultant. Willem Klumpenhouwer is an independent public transit research and data analytics consultant based in Calgary. For the first time in more than a decade, Canada is moving swiftly to fix long-standing policy problems – such as hobbled interprovincial trade – while also strongly identifying what makes us Canadian, and what sets us apart from our neighbours to the south. This is an opportunity for Canada to double down massively on public transit. This might surprise you: Public transit is this country’s true comparative advantage, as the economists like to say. Canada stands head-and-shoulders above the United States. While it sometimes feels as though complaining about transit and related long-suffering infrastructure projects is a national sport, we really are better at urban transportation than the U.S. Our three largest subway systems, in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, each carry more riders daily than every American subway outside of New York. Light-rail networks in Calgary and Ottawa move more than any in the U.S. Even public transit systems in smaller cities and suburbs such as Waterloo, Victoria and Brampton punch well above their weight. It’s no wonder U.S. public transit consultant Jarrett Walker often encourages U.S. agencies to “start by envying Canada.” This is why spending on public transit is an excellent trade-war strategy. Moreover, medium-term commitments to long-studied rail projects could get the ball rolling quickly and would mean major purchase contracts for things such as steel and aluminum in short order. This would help lift the respective industries, which must now seek alternative markets due to tariffs in the United States. There are also the inevitable construction jobs, which would be especially valuable outside of Ontario and B.C., where many major transit projects are already being built. Subway, LRT and streetcar lines can’t be built overnight, of course, so in the interim we must invest in massive increases in local bus service across the country. That has domestic production advantages, too: Unlike cars – which we overwhelmingly import into Canada – we make virtually all our buses in large factories in Quebec and Manitoba. In fact, Winnipeg’s New Flyer Industries Inc. is the market leader in transit buses in Canada and the U.S. Similarly, Canada is home to three major train factories that belong to Alstom SA (formerly Bombardier), which have pumped out railcars for many Canadian cities as well as other countries. All this means that Canadians will be stepping out of foreign-made vehicles and onto buses and trains made in Canada. There are even bigger opportunities that could bring us together as a country. Just before Justin Trudeau stepped out of his role as prime minister, he announced a serious push for high-speed rail in the Toronto-Montreal corridor. A project such as that could offer real nation-building. More Canadians getting on transit also means stable, well-paying jobs for people maintaining and operating the nation’s transit systems. Tens of thousands of people are already employed from coast to coast, and a big investment in more transit service could quickly swell that number. On top of that, Canadian planners and engineers are needed to design these systems and the places around them. But it’s not just make-work. While transit stimulates the manufacturing, materials and resource economy, and provides good jobs, it also provides a potentially huge boost to day-to-day affordability. Consider life today in Toronto: Research shows many people who have cars still choose to take buses because they run so frequently that they can be a convenient and cost-effective alternative, even if only for some weekly trips and errands. If that type of transit service was available across the country, it could be an instant relief for people’s wallets – one estimate puts the average cost of owning a car in Canada at $1,300 a month. And that transit happens to also come from Canadian production lines. Beyond direct day-to-day affordability, research has connected higher transit use to reduced health care costs, increased productivity and reduced congestion and resulting pollution. Canada has its own places to envy, of course. Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world still generally have us beat on urban transportation, but that’s why the trade war with the U.S. offers such a powerful opportunity. We will have hurdles to overcome. The cost to build transit infrastructure in Canada is too high; higher than other comparable non-English-speaking countries. We struggle to build the type of housing that makes these transit projects thrive. Perhaps, in this time of national unity, we can set our local differences aside and recognize the value that good public transit brings to all of us. It is often said that one should never waste a good crisis. This is Canada’s opportunity to draw on something we already do better than our neighbours to the south and get the country moving.