The Bellingham Municipal Council in Washington State wrote a letter to the British, reaffirming their commitment to relations with residents north of the border in the midst of current tensions between Canada and the United States
“I believe that the letter, if I will summarize, was essentially a government handshake on an urban capacity, just wanting to reach and show, just a collaboration,” said Guy Occhiogrosso, President and Chief Executive Officer Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“One of the ways we qualify for some other local agencies is (to be) ready for warm welcome, letting everyone know that when Canadians are ready to come back, for those who are not, we will be ready for you.”
Occhiogrosso said it was difficult to determine the exact impact that the drop in cross -border trips has on Bellingham, but restaurants and stores notice a difference.
“The entities that we represent as the room spend an interesting moment to try to assess the impacts, and I think that is what we do at this stage,” he said.
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Last weekend, a bipartite group of five American senators visited Ottawa to say that they wanted to strengthen the Canadian-American relationship despite the American president Donald Trump Recent attacks. The group’s only republican has urged Canadians to “give us another chance”.
The senators met Prime Minister Mark Carney, who promised to continue a new economic and security partnership with the United States while recognizing that The trend of “deep integration” between the two countries is over.
American legislators say that long -standing relations must continue, with trade, tourism and defense partnerships between key areas where collaboration is critical.
“We have to do these things together,” said Republican senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota The western block.
“We will be better if we are friends than if we tolerate each other … I’m just there (in Ottawa) to thank you, then to encourage Canadians to take another look and give us another chance.”
Occhiogrosso has also expressed the importance of rebuilding and maintaining the relationship between the United States and Canada, recognizing that it can take days, weeks, months or even years so that Canadians feel that they wanted to cross the border.
“And we, in partnership with our tourism office, we really press this warm welcome to say that we recognize where people are,,” he said.
“Locally, there is not much that we can do to repair some of these emotions, some of these concerns, but we are ready. We are ready for you when you return. And I think that is looking at the hundreds of years of relationship that our communities experience.”
-With the Sean Boynton files
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