Premier of British Columbia David Eby says his fellow prime ministers and the federal government have developed an action plan to fight the U.S. priceswith conservative premiers lobbying their Republican counterparts, left-wing provincial leaders courting Democrats and Ottawa focusing on President-elect Donald Trump.
The prime ministers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have talked about using their political diversity and connections to thwart the prospect of Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, Eby said Thursday in an end-of-year interview.
He said it had been discussed that Conservative prime ministers Danielle Smith in Alberta, Doug Ford in Ontario and Tim Houston in Nova Scotia are well positioned to put pressure on Republican governors and business leaders.
Eby said that as a New Democrat, he would likely have more in common with Democratic governors and business leaders in West Coast states.
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“I can easily have conversations with governors and businesses on the West Coast of the United States, where we have close relationships and our policies are very similar,” he said.
“Premier Smith can have conversations with Republican governors. It would be more difficult for me, and (she) would potentially have more ties to the Trump administration than to an NDP administration in British Columbia.
He said a meeting last week between prime ministers and Trudeau discussed the diversity of Canada’s representation and how it could bring leverage and advantage in tariff negotiations.
“It’s interesting, there’s been a lot of talk about what unity means in terms of Canada’s response to tariffs,” he said.
“There is obviously a diversity of points of view around the table of the Council of the Federation of all the prime ministers. Certainly mine is not the same as that of Premier Smith or Premier Ford or Premier Houston, and that diversity of views is actually potentially an important strength for us as we begin these discussions.
Eby also said he was willing to appear on right-wing US channel Fox News TV, as were Prime Ministers Ford and Smith.
“Everything I can do to support the national effort to protect families in Canada from the impact of tariffs as well as families in the United States from these unjustified tariffs,” he said. “Absolutely, if I thought it would be helpful.”
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