By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canada must remain united against Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs, but two major provinces quickly asked him to address the U.S. president-elect’s concerns.
Trudeau, who will meet with the premiers of all 10 provinces on Wednesday to discuss relations with the United States, often points out that his Liberal government has four years of experience dealing with the first Trump administration.
Trump said Monday he would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico until they clamp down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants crossing the border. Such a tariff would severely impact Canada’s economy, which sends 75% of all goods exports to the United States.
“This is a relationship that we know takes some work and that’s what we’re going to do,” Trudeau told reporters. “One of the really important things is that we all work together on this.”
The premier of Ontario, the most populous province and the country’s industrial heartland, said Trump had good reason to be concerned about the security of the long-shared border.
“Do we need to do a better job at our borders? 1,000 percent… we need to listen to the threat of too many illegals crossing the border,” Doug Ford (NYSE:) told reporters.
“We have to crush illegal drugs and illegal weapons.”
But Ford, who wants Trudeau to abandon the trilateral trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico in favor of a bilateral pact with the United States, also said any tariff would hurt both countries.
Trump’s comparison of Canada to Mexico when it came to threats to the United States was “the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said.
In another early sign of tension, the premier of the oil-rich province of Alberta said Monday night that Trump had valid concerns related to illegal activities on their shared border.
“We call on the federal government to work with the incoming administration to resolve these issues immediately, thereby avoiding unnecessary tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States,” Danielle Smith said in a social media post.
“The vast majority of Alberta’s energy exports to the United States are delivered via secure pipelines that do not contribute in any way to these illegal activities at the border,” said Smith, whose relations with Trudeau are frosty.
Former Liberal Finance Minister John Manley called for calm, noting that Trump had not yet assumed power.
“Don’t set yourself on fire yet. We know Donald Trump is a bit of an entertainer,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “You have to stroke his ego and you have to allow him to get some victories.”