Monday July 21, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC] [Posted at 4;09 pm PT | Updated 11 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today Prime Minister Mark Carney hosted four American Senators to Ottawa for a discussion about the trade issues between Canada the United States.
Three of the senators in Ottawa today are Democrat and one is Republican (the US president’s party).
The Democratic senators visiting in Canada today are Ron Wyden (Oregon), Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire), and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada). The Republican senator is Lisa Murkowski (Alaska / Republican).
“Four senators here, [from] both political parties, spent the morning working to build bridges, not throw wrenches,” Wyden said of the trade talks. He is the point person on the finance committee on international trade. Hassan is also a member of the finance committee.
It’s unclear how successful the impact of four ‘Canada-friendlies’ can have with the Trump White House administration but it’s a continual approach that Carney and his senior ministers continue to try as the tariff issue and economic trade war continues (as launched by the US against Canada).
Canada and the U.S. are engaged with negotiations. Previously, a 30-day deadline ending today July 21 was set by Carney. Meanwhile, last week Trump declared that a 35% tariff would be applied to all Canadians imports into the US if a trade agreement is not reached by August 1.
Article 1 of the US constitution charges the Congress to lead on international trade, said Senator Wyden. “We’re making it clear that we’re willing to work with all parties to come up with a program and an approach that makes sense.”
Building a productive economy:
“We are here about making sure that in the days ahead we build on a productive economy for Canada and the United States,” said Senator Wyden. He believes “we can build more trust between the United States and Canada”.
“We’re talking about tariffs. Tariffs are taxes in our country. The biggest issues is cost. People are concerned about the price of goods and services. And we know that’s a big issues in Canada. We’ve got a big date coming up August 1,” said Wyden.
“We made it clear that on a bipartisan basis we want to work with all sides — the executive branch in both countries — to get some stability back in the economy — in the United States and in Canada,” said Wyden.
Wyden said he and the other three senators made three key suggestions in Ottawa today, including:
First, trying to reinvigorate the US-Canada-Mexico agreement (CUSMA). “All of my colleagues share that view. This is something that we have a considerable amount of success with since it was written during the (first) Trump administration. We ought to strengthen it, we ought to build it, not get rid of it,” US Senator Wyden said.
Two other points would help to build trust, said Wyden:
- “The Digital Services Tax (DST) — all to your credit, you’re not going to collect it. I asked that Canada move as quickly as possible to get a law passed in parliament making sure that it’s gone permanently. The prime minister was receptive to that. He said he would get on it in the fall.
- “In our part of the world, softwood lumber is enormously important. We asked on how we can make progress in dealing with that issue which has been an irritant between the United States and Canada for decades and decades. We now have a clear idea of how to proceed and that’s to build around some sort of quota arrangement. The Prime Minister said he was open to that.”
“There’s lots to work on but it’s about strengthening the trust between our two great countries,” said Wyden. “Both sides are looking like they want to work on constructive solutions — and that was progress,” said Wyden to media today.
He says he sees “projects on hold” as the Trump approach to trade is worked out.
Alaska shares a border:
Murkowski talked about being proud of Alaska being the 49th state and said she is happy to respect existing borders with Canada. “We have just about the right number of states in the United States,” she said, eluding to this year’s 51st-state rhetoric of US President Trump.
She says that Trump’s approach to persisting with commentary about “the 51st states” is a “positioning statement … something to maybe agitate — I don’t think that that’s constructive, quite honestly,” said Murkowski.
“Here in Canada you can sense that there is a direct hostility to that suggestion,” the Alaskan senator said. “Constructive dialogue is going to what reinforces this long-standing relationship between these two countries,” she said. She itemized “a 5,000-mile border, shared interest and shared values”.
“This visit is as much of an effort to ensure that there is a recognition — that this trust and relationship that we have had between our two countries is solid, despite the complicated road that we’re navigating right now when it comes to tariffs and trade issues,” she said.
“We have a very unique aspect in our relationship between the United States and Canada when it comes to defence security. This is not only economic security when we’re talking about tariffs, it is about the shared defence security. In my state of Alaska, we have almost a daily occurrence if not on a more frequent basis. The Canadian partnership with the US military assets, the training exercises, that intersects in the air and on the water — this relationship is real and we don’t want to see that get frayed when we have a complicated relationship as it relates to our trade,” said Murkowski during the media availability within the parliament buildings in Ottawa today.
The Alaskan senator said there are opportunities “within the Arctic sphere and with regards to cyber”.
“How we are able to negotiate that at the same time as we’re talking about some of these very great issues. Not only with the prime minister but also with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “We have a framework within which to operate,” said Murkowski in referring to a comment from Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.
Murkowski says today’s visit with Carney is about “reforms to USMCA, economic diplomacy, and economic security without eroding the defence relationship” between Canada and the United States.
New Hampshire on tourism:
New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan hopes to see Canadians back as visitors and doing business; tourism trade is noticeably down in the eastern seaboard state of New Hampshire since Trump began his 51st state assault on Canada.
“We miss you. The instability in our relationship right now has meant that some Canadians have decided to stay away from their favourite American tourist spots,” said Hassan as she began her remarks to media in Ottawa today. “And we hope you will come back,” she added.
“It’s not just that we miss your business, which of course every good business person does. But we miss your friendship. We are a people of shared values, we share geography, we share security interests,” Hassan said.
She noted that New Hampshire is hit hard by the fentanyl crisis, as is Canada. Hassan said the four senators talked with Carney today about “things we can do together to stop the flow of the precursor chemicals that are used to make fentanyl”.
Hassan says it’s important to “stop the demand for fentanyl and help people get better when they do become addicted”.
“The relationship is going through some great strains,” said Hassan about Canada-US right now. “But the framework of the USMCA gives us an opportunity to in one framework come together and improve on something that was a great bipartisan success back in 2018,” said Hassan.
She wants to “bring back some stability and some trust”. She feels that Canada and the US are of “shared values and shared outlook”.
Nevada on business:
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez said that “Canada has a great partnership with Nevada” including travel, tourism and conventions.
“We are seeing a decrease in the travel from Canadaians to Nevada, adding that 30 percent of travelers to Nevada are Canadians.
Cortez says there are 183 Canadian businesses operate in Nevada that employ almost 17,000 people. Nevada has a sister partnership with the Province of Ontario to work on things like events, manufacturing, critical minerals and energy.
As a member of Senate Finance Cortez hopes to see Canada and the United States continue to work within the USMCA (CUSMA). She hopes that “as things move forward, both Canada and the United States are getting what they need out of this agreement”.
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