(Ottawa) Provincial and territorial premiers will travel to Washington on February 12, approximately three weeks after Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States. The latter threatens to use “economic force” to annex Canada.
Posted at 1:40 p.m.
The prime ministers will meet with “key members of the new American administration, Congress and the business community to advocate for maintaining strong relations between Canada and the United States,” underlines a press release issued by the Council of the Federation Friday.
“Americans and Canadians are like family, and we have been allies for generations,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who chairs the Council. By working together, the United States and Canada have a huge opportunity to grow our economies and bring good jobs back to both sides of the border. »
The premiers of the provinces are trying by all means to avoid the 25% customs tariffs on Canadian products imported into the United States that Mr. Trump threatens to impose quickly after taking office on January 20. Some of them will also participate in the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, which will be held in Washington from February 20 to 22.
Mr. Ford notably increases the number of interviews on the American television channels Fox News and CNN. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also answered questions from Fox News hosts several times.
At their meeting in Mississauga in December, the premiers agreed to present a united front despite their differences on the best approach to take. Mr. Ford suggested completely cutting energy exported to the United States, which was opposed by Mr. Legault as well as Andrew Furey and Danielle Smith, respectively premiers of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Alberta.
They urge Ottawa to accelerate the achievement of the target of 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) allocated to the defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and call for “proactive measures” to secure the Canadian-American border.
-Mr. Ford also announced Tuesday that Ontario is strengthening security along its border with the United States as part of its response to these tariff threats: the provincial police have increased their patrols using planes , helicopters, drones, boats and patrol vehicles. In total, 200 Ontario agents were mobilized.
A meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his provincial and territorial counterparts will take place Wednesday in Ottawa.
They recalled Friday that the United States “sells more goods and services to Canada than it does to China, Japan and Germany combined.”
Our economic partnership is worth more than a trillion dollars per year and helps maintain millions of jobs here and our neighbors to the south.
Extract from the press release issued by the Council of the Federation
Mr. Trudeau delivered a similar message the day before in an interview with the American network CNN, his first major interview since announcing his resignation on Monday.
“Anything an American president does to harm the Canadian economy will also harm American consumers, American workers and American economic growth,” he said.
