Wednesday January 15, 2025 | NATIONAL – VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 11:25 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This morning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosted a meeting with Canada’s Premiers to address how Canada will deal with the threat of US tariffs.
BC Premier David Eby was in BC and attended the Ottawa meeting remotely.
Council of the Federation Chair Doug Ford said that Canada needs to approach the threat of US tariffs from a position of strength.
“Things are going to change in a week,” said Ford. “Retaliatory tariffs need to be hard,” he said regarding the threat of US tariffs upon the Canadian economy.
“I’m going to fight like you’ve never seen before,” said Ford as to pushing back against the US for attacking the Canadian eocnomy.
“How we lift the tariffs as quickly as possible” is the key question, said Trudeau during the press conference. “We will use any and all tools as necessary,” said Trudeau.
“There is unity among the premiers,” said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.
BC Premier weighs in:
“I certainly hope it doesn’t come to a point where Canada needs to impose export tariffs or export bans. In fact I hope we don’t end up in a situation where there are tariffs at all, placed by the Americans,” said BC Premier David Eby in social media today.
“That they come to their senses, that all they’re doing is taxing themselves and its going to dramatically increase prices for everyday Americans.
“But should it come to it, I support the federal government taking the steps that are necessary. As a Canadian and as a British Columbian I’m going to stand strong with Premiers to make sure that we’re not limiting the tools available to the federal government to respond to this. To make sure that the tariffs are as short as possible if they are imposed, that they’re protecting jobs here,” said Eby.
Referring to his virtual participation in the meetings of the prime minister and premiers in Ottawa today, Eby said: “The key message that I had that I think was entirely consistent with what (Alberta) Premier Smith was raising is that it needs to be regionally proportionate. That if there are tariffs that are impacting BC then they need to be similarly impacting other provinces across the country.”
“We can’t be turning to BC and Alberta to carry all the weight of the retaliation against the United States. It’s a shared responsibility. This is economic war time. When we’re in that situation as Canadians we’re all in that position to protect our people, to protect our jobs here in Canada and to protect our country,” said Eby today.
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