Friday January 10, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS, Victoria, BC [Posted 2:30 pm]
Political news by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Canada’s Premiers will head to Washington, DC on February 12 for meetings with US governors, senators and business leaders to discuss tariffs with both Democrats and Republicans.
The meeting date was announced two days ago by Ontario Premier Doug Ford who chairs the Council of the Federation (Canada’s Premiers).
The February 12 meeting date will come 23 days after the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.
To prepare, Premiers will meet in person in Ottawa with the prime minister and key cabinet ministers on Wednesday, January 15.
Strategy and approach:
Today the Council of the Federation issued a statement about the February 12 meeting in the US capital.
“The “Premiers will meet with key members of the new US administration, congress and business leaders to advocate for maintaining strong Canada-US relations by addressing shared issues such as jobs and the economy, energy, critical mineral supply chains, border security and immigration,” says the Council of the Federation (COF) in a news release on January 10.
“The US sells more goods and services to Canada than it sells to China, Japan and Germany combined,” says COF. “Our economic partnership is worth more than a trillion dollars annually and supports millions of jobs on both sides of the border.”
“Americans and Canadians are like family. We’ve been allies for generations,” said Premier Doug Ford in the January 10 news release.
“By working together, the US and Canada have an enormous opportunity to grow our economic and bring good jobs back home on both sides of the border. Now more than ever, Canada’s Premiers are best positioned to carry this message and work alongside US lawmakers and business leaders,” Ford said.
In addition to the joint mission on February 12, some Premiers will also travel to Washington during the annual meeting of the National Governors Association during February 20 to 22.
BC Premier David Eby has outlined three key components to the BC strategy.
Tariffs in a living document:
Canada is preparing a retaliation response — being prepared by senior Canadian government officials, currently in the form of a living government for further input and revision.
The list will apparently include hundreds of different American-made goods, including steel and aluminum products (especially as produced in the key swing states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania), ceramics that housing depends upon (e.g. sinks and toilets), glassware, flowers and various types of plastics, as well as Florida orange juice (Florida being Trump’s home state).
Regions and locations will be considered in the tariff list, as in putting political pressures on state lawmakers.
In the wake of Trudeau’s resignation:
Today’s firm evidence of Premiers working as a solid team comes just two days after Justin Trudeau announced that he will resign as Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader after a new Liberal Party Leader is chosen.
The new Liberal leader will be in place as prime minister on March 9. The House of Commons getting back into an active session on March 24. A non-confidence vote may soon follow.
===== RELATED:
- Liberals to produce new prime minister by March 9 (January 10, 2025)
- Canada’s Premiers taking tariff talk to Washington (January 8, 2025)
- Eby outlines three-part BC response to US tariffs (January 7, 2025)
- Trudeau resigns – Parliament on pause as Liberals choose new leader (January 6, 2025)
- Significant interest rate drop needed on Jan 29 (January 6, 2025)
- Canada’s Premiers prioritize Canada-US relations, energy security and improving health care (December 16, 2024)
- ‘Nothing is off the table’ says Premier Eby regarding US tariff threat (December 13, 2024)
- Canada’s Premiers discuss border & tariffs with Trudeau (November 27, 2024)
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