New Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly met with the incoming Trump administration Friday evening at Mar-a-Lago, Florida. A meeting which was “positive and productive”, according to Mr. LeBlanc’s spokesperson, Jean-Sébastien Comeau.
Posted at 6:03 p.m.
Updated at 6:10 p.m.
More specifically, the two ministers spoke with Doug Burgum (Secretary of the Interior) and Howard Lutnick (Secretary of Commerce), who were also present on November 29 at the dinner between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau. The president-elect had then just made his first threat about customs tariffs.
PHOTO BRIAN SNYDER, ARCHIVES REUTERS
Commerce Secretary-designate Howard Lutnick
Discussions focused on measures set out in Canada’s Border Plan, as well as border security and the fight against drug trafficking.
The outline of this $1.3 billion border plan was made public on December 17. It includes the creation of a new air intelligence task force to monitor the border and increased efforts to detect drugs in shipments leaving Canada, using technology and canine teams.
“During their conversations, Lutnick and Burgum took note of the updates provided by the two ministers and agreed to transmit the information to President Trump,” says Jean-Sébastien Comeau, specifying that the discussions should continue in the weeks to come.
Justin Trudeau reacts
Mme Joly and Mr. LeBlanc made this trip a few weeks after Justin Trudeau and Mr. LeBlanc met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. It was during this dinner that Donald Trump first raised the idea of Canada becoming the 51e American state, a comment Mr. LeBlanc called a joke on several occasions.
The Prime Minister did not directly respond to these barbs, but he published on his X account on Thursday a link to a six-minute video on YouTube dating from 2010, in which American journalist Tom Brokaw “explains Canada to Americans” in matters of culture, geography, history, politics, etc.
Justin Trudeau did not comment, simply saying “some information about Canada for Americans.”
With The Canadian Press
