Wednesday November 27, 2024 – 7 pm | VICTORIA, BC [Updated November 28, 2024]
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
It was a quickly assembled Zoom call prompted by a need to have a collective response to President-Elect Donald Trump’s threat to apply a 25% tariff on all Canadian products that are exported to the United States.
The virtual meeting had a sense of urgency about it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened the call with all of Canada’s Premiers, held at 5 pm local time from Ottawa (2 pm Pacific). It seems that Premiers had one day’s notice to prepare, though Council of the Federation (COF) Chair Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario) did get the ball rolling in the public sphere with a letter from COF to the Prime Minister on Monday requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Premiers.
Also participating in the meeting today were Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc and Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP Mark Flynn accompanied LeBlanc and Freeland for a press conference after the Zoom call meeting.
The focus was about getting everyone on the same page to ensure tariffs are not in place.
During the meeting the Prime Minister reportedly indicated the conversation would continue but no firm date was set.
Summary by Deputy Prime Minister:
“It was a really good really important meeting,” said Freeland in her media availability today. “We talked about the Canada-US relationship and our central agreement on which everyone was agreed, really from the outset, that this is a time where we need to play from ‘Team Canada’, we need to work in a united and coordinated way,” she said in a media availability from Ottawa.
“We agreed that we need to be smart, strong and united in meeting this challenge. We spoke principally about the border and the Canada-US trade relationship. When it came to the economic relationship we talked about the fact that trade between Canada and the United States is balanced and mutually beneficial, that Canada is the largest market for the United States by far — larger than China, Japan, the UK and France combined,” said Freeland.
“Many Premiers talked about how important their provinces in for US exporters. And we also talked about how the United States depends on us for many essential products. In particular we spoke about energy, talked about how the US relies on Canadian oil, Canadian electricity, Canadian critical minerals and metals,” said Freeland.
“Premiers referred to how that dependency on Canadian energy is particularly important today at a time when AI is such an important force for the economy of the future and AI is so power hungry,” said Chrystia Freeland today.
“We also spike about how Canada and the United States are aligned wen it comes to China and China’s unfair trade practices. China’s intentional policy about capacity. We spoke a lot about the border. Our shared view was that of course the US has the absolute right to control who enters the United States, just as Canada has the absolute right to control who enters Canada. We agreed that illegal drugs, especially opioids are a scourge for both of our countries and that we need to continue to work hard to ensure our border is safe and secure. And to really crack down on illegal drugs,” the Deputy Prime Minister told media.
“Our country is facing a significant challenge,” said Freeland. “We have opportunities as well.”
LeBlanc’s comments:
“It was a good conversation focused to a considerable extent on border security. We spoke to Premiers about the security currently in place at the Canadian border. We believe that there is a circumstance where we can make additional investments to reassure Canadians that all of the measures necessary are in place and continue to be in place.
We have a lot of faith in the work done by border services officers, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We appreciate the work of provincial police forces.
The Prime Minister spoke to premiers about the important work of collaborating with law enforcement agencies, the Ontario Provincial Police, The Sûreté du Québec our partners for the RCMP in Quebec, and work with them in ensuring that all the measures are in place.
And finally we spoke about additional measures and additional investments that we can make in supporting the work of the RCMP, of Canadian Border Services Agency.
Premiers spoke about their desire to collaborate with us on issues around border security. including some of the measures taken by Marc Miller (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship) on immigration and tightening visa requirements for persons coming from Mexico, dealing with increasingly a number of cases involving fraudulent pretexts where people get a visa and come to Canada but ultimately are trying to enter the United States.
We’ll continue to tighten the screws on that process to make sure that we continue to have an immigration system and borders that in fact support the integrity and security that Canadians and Americans work on every day and have for decades.
So it was a positive conversation and we’re going to continue to ensure that we work with premiers in the coming weeks to set a Team Canada approach in terms of border security, national security and ensuring that the immigration system is orderly.”
COF chair:
Council of the Federation Chair Doug Ford had earlier said that the federal government has been “slow to react and stuck on the back foot”.
Freeland responded to a media query about that, by saying today’s conversation was “very positive and very united” and that everyone in the room “really agreed that right now what Canada needs is for us to work together, that we need to be strong, we need to be smart, we need to be united”.
BC participation:
Earlier today BC Premier David Eby told media he will naturally put the interests of British Columbians first. But he’s also going to be a team player: “We’ve got to stick together, and we will,” said Eby about Canada’s Premiers expecting the federal government to stand up effectively to protect Canadian jobs and the economy.
Eby said in his noon-hour media scrum that border security issues need discussion (as he’s already tried with the federal government — with a letter and other expressions of concern), probably not assisted by twinning that with a threat of tariffs. “It doesn’t justify the tariffs,” said Eby today in his noon hour media availability.
Manitoba participation:
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is a straightforward communicator. He addressed media in front of three flags — Canada, USA, and Manitoba — with some Christmas trees lit up in blue also in the background.
He summarized his contribution to today’s call between Premiers and the PM in four areas:
- ‘why not’ improve Canada-US border safety & deal with drug trafficking? It seems like a win-win.
- He said he would protect agriculture as the economic backbone of his province (food production being of importance to all Canadians).
- There’s a need to develop a clear strategy for trade with China,
- Yes, spend 2% on military (an idea he said met with widespread support among the premiers).
Kinew said what he gleaned from the meeting is that “there will be more investment coming to the RCMP” from the federal government.
Alberta Premier:
Premier Danielle Smith said afterward in an interview with CBC that she expects the federal government to present a robust border policy within a short period of time, and that the provinces are prepared to add more resources to make it happen.
Quebec Premier:
Quebec Premier François Legault reportedly left the meeting without a clear understanding of the federal government’s plan, according to CBC The National.
===== RELATED:
- Trump threatens 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico (November 25, 2024)
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