Thursday February 12, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS ANALYSIS (from VICTORIA, BC)
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Yesterday in Washington after a meeting with top Trump administration officials, Canada’s Finance Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc was asked by media if the outrage from Canadians about 51st-state comments could be used as leverage in meetings with Trump administration officials.
“I told them clearly that Canadians have become quite emotional in the last number of weeks and quite united in terms of doing what’s necessary to avoid this punitive impact on our economy,” said LeBlanc.
“We believe it’s not in the economic interest of the United States to do this. We have work to do with the government to continue to make that point. But I certainly raised with them the solidarity that we’ve seen across the country in terms of meeting this moment in a way that protects the sovereignty of Canada and protects our economic interests,” said LeBlanc.
In followup to that, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, Kirsten HIllman, said: “They knew that before we went into that meeting. I think it’s well known here in Washington that Canadians were reacting strongly and in a unified way in the face of a lot of uncertainty heading out of Washington.
“Folks on Capitol Hill, they have seen this — those who are paying attention to the Canada trade issue — and so my sense is that we didn’t need to really pound the table on that. We can refer to it lightly because it’s well understood,” said Hillman.
She made these comments after LeBlanc said he was “getting metrics on what is an encouraging evolution” adding that “the work is ongoing”.
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