B.C. Premier David Eby says premiers made it clear to U.S. leaders that Canada would never become the 51st state.
Speaking Wednesday (Feb. 12) in the wake of discussions with officials within and around the Donald Trump government, Eby said premiers had a "productive" but also "frank" discussion about various trade issues.
Eby was at the White House as part of a delegation of provincial premiers and territorial leaders meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. But perhaps their most important meeting was with Jim Blair, deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs, and Sergio Gor, director of the personnel office for the U.S. president.
Eby said the officials told premiers they should take Trump at his word considering the state of the border, Canada's trade surplus and military spending. That included Trump's statement that Canada could address these issues by becoming the 51st state.
"So there were an array of things that they were asking us to take seriously from the president and some obviously, which we had to push back on firmly," Eby said.
He added that he also asked American officials to share data about fentanyl currently shared with Ottawa with premiers as well.
"(We) are keen to take action on the provincial and territorial level, but we need to have that information to be able to do it," Eby said, prior to scheduled meetings with labour leaders Wednesday evening.
Eby also told reporters that Trump officials told premiers that key Trump officials responsible for trade are still undergoing their Congressional confirmation. "(In) terms of a negotiation or a back-and-forth about what the interests of the United States, what the interests of Canada, it will be so much easier once their officials are confirmed," Eby said.
Eby also pointed to the possibility of a future meeting between the premiers and Trump himself. "At this stage, they were taking time to meet with us, to confirm the U.S. interest in meeting with and that once the officials were in place, they wanted us to reach out again and try again and indicated the President may be interested in meeting with us as well at that time."
Wednesday's White House meeting marked the climax of meetings between the provincial and territorial leaders with American officials inside and outside of Congress and the Trump administration. The delegation organized by the Council of Federation representing premiers and territorial leaders itself is the latest effort dating back to November that tries to exert influence on Trump through political decision-makers, civil society leaders and the public at-large.
The meeting took place amidst a 30-day-pause on 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods with a 10-per-cent carve out for energy set to expire March 4. Trump Monday announced that the United States would also impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum March 12 with tariffs stacking on top of each other, according to published reports. In other words, Canadian steel and aluminum exports to the United States would face 50 per cent tariffs.
Trump has also recently re-stated his argument that Canada could avoid these tariffs if it were join the United States as the 51st state, having previously said he would use economic coercion toward that goal.
Will Greaves, associate professor of international relations at the University of Victoria, told Black Press Media Tuesday (Feb. 12) that Trump's statements concerning Canada becoming the 51st state do not reflect a broad consensus among members of the political class in the United States.
"This is a very unique situation where one man, for a variety of complex reasons, is really driving the bus off a cliff all by himself," Greaves said. "So I think the best strategy for Canada is absolutely to try to leverage the pressure points within the United States' system of government and get as large and robust a coalition of American stakeholders, both across the federal government, state level governments, local governments, but also business, the corporate sector, civil society , everyday citiziens as our allies, to lobby the Trump administration to say, 'what are you thinking?'"
