'Americans and Canadians are like family': Ford, Trudeau talk up US relationship ahead of premiers' trip to DC
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will lead Canada’s premiers on a visit to Washington, DC on Feb. 12, it has been announced.
According to a statement from the Council of the Federation, the premiers will meet with “key members” of Donald Trump’s second administration.
They’ll also speak with members of Congress and business leaders, the bulletin explains.
“Americans and Canadians are like family,” Ford said in the statement. “We’ve been allies for generations.”
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.
He added: “By working together, the US and Canada have an enormous opportunity to grow our economies 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.”
It comes after a bizarre couple of months in which Trump has repeatedly insulted and provoked Canadians and the country's leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He most recently said he will use “economic force” to push Canada into joining the US.
Reactions to the president-elect have been varied, with Trudeau saying there wasn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” of Canada becoming a US state and Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre declaring that “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.”
Speaking in Washington, DC on Thursday, Trudeau, who was visiting for the funeral of President Jimmy Carter, said the mooted union is “never going to happen.”
Giving one example of how Canadians define themselves, Trudeau said: “We’re Canadian because we’re not American. And that is not going to change.”
He also said he had “a number of good and productive meetings with business leaders” while in the US capital.
Trudeau made an appearance on CNN, too, emphasizing that he didn’t want any tariffs – either from the US or Canada – and celebrating the US–Canada relationship.
But he told interviewer Jake Tapper that “we would definitely respond” to any tariffs from Trump.
Again reacting to Trump’s “51st state” jibes, he told CNN the incoming president was attempting to distract Canadians from the topic of tariffs and the damage they would do to the American economy.
He also said Trump’s re-election had no impact on his own decision to resign this week.
Other leaders, including Ford, have adopted a more jocular approach towards the president-elect. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May even suggested Canada could annex California and other Democratic Party-supporting states.
"The reality is I can't do both," Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa as she announced her decision not to run for the Liberal leadership, citing the need to focus on the government's response to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats. #cdnpolipic.twitter.com/S9rVitBqlx
British Columbia Premier David Eby said Canadians "will never sacrifice our identity or independence to any other country."
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, meanwhile, said today she's off to Washington, DC next week to discuss Trump's threatened 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.
She said it was crucial to take Trump's threat "very seriously" and stressed "there will be real consequences" for the US if the tariff is implemented.
But she also said Canada has "deep affection" for the US.
Thumbnail photograph: CNN/Council of the Federation
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