Wednesday January 8, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS, Victoria, BC [Posted 3 pm | Updated 9:18 pm | Updated January 10, 2025]
Political summary 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 today 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.
Preparation:
Meanwhile, Premiers will meet in person in Ottawa with the prime minister and key cabinet ministers next Wednesday, January 15.
Strategy and approach:
UPDATE: “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 artnership 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.
Tariffs in a living document:
As reported on CBC this afternoon, Canada is preparing a retaliation response — currently 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.
Today a Liberal Party representative said the new leader is expected to be in place ahead of the House of Commons getting back into an active session on March 24.
LeBlanc continues in cabinet:
Current Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc is not seeking the Liberal leadership and will stay on to help the Canada-USA process that is being discussed at the cabinet level.
Ford said that LeBlanc is respected among the premiers, and he expects the federal leadership will be effective in LeBlanc’s hands.
Today LeBlanc said in Ottawa that his work on the Canada-US file will focus on the real economic threat.
BC Premier’s strategy:
Yesterday BC Premier David Eby outlined three key components to the BC strategy:
- To support federal government discussions and evaluations of retaliatory tariffs;
- Ensuring that our province, our economy, is adapting to the new realities for expedited permitting, through necessary response work that we were already initiating in the response to forestry and the impacts on that sector, as well as permitting times to make sure we are adapting – permits, response (forestry);
- Diversifying our trade partners, making make sure we’re in a position to respond to replace US customers that we may lose for our exports as a result of the tariffs.
Today Eby said in social media: “Canada’s Premiers will travel to Washington DC on February 12 to meet with Republicans and Democrats about the harm tariffs will cause both sides of the border.”
“I am a proud Canadian and British Columbians. We will never sacrifice our identity or independence to any other country. We will always stand strong against any threat to our people,” said Premier Eby in social media today.
===== RELATED:
- Canada’s Premiers to discuss tariffs on Feb 12 in Washington DC (January 10, 2025)
- Liberals to produce new prime minister by March 9 (January 10, 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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