B.C. Premier David Eby started off his Wednesday on Fox News, hoping, he said, to send a message directly to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“My goal this morning was to communicate to two audiences,” Eby said.
“One is obviously the American people, and the other was the American administration within the White House. It’s the exact same that I’ve been talking to you about that, the goal here is to understand where the Americans want to go their own way, and where they want to work with us so that we can make decisions for ourselves, as Canadians, about where to go.”
Eby said that message was similar to what Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered in his meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
Eby added that he was asked by the Fox News host if Canadians still like Americans and his response was unambiguous.
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“We love Americans,” he said.
“You know, we got family down there. We got longtime business relationships. Americans are welcome in Canada. We feel though, like, you know, a good friend is in a bad relationship right now, and it’s hard, but we understand that that’s the reality. But it doesn’t change our feeling about Americans.”
Eby said Carney debriefed all the premiers on Wednesday morning following his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“There was a consensus among the premiers that the prime minister did well yesterday to baseline the relationship between Canada and the United States,” Eby said.
“That there was a sense of a different level of engagement, that the president is respectful of the prime minister and we were all grateful that the meeting went the way that it did.”
Eby said a number of topics came up that are important to British Columbians, including potential tariffs on the film industry and softwood lumber.
“We think, certainly if the meeting today is any indication, that there’s an opportunity for softwood lumber to lead the way in terms of opening the door again to concrete and meaningful discussions that benefit both Americans, with cheaper building materials, and Canadians as well as support for that in growing our economy.”
Premiers across the country expressed concern about potential impacts to the film and TV industry, Eby said, and they hope Carney will continue to bring those concerns to Trump.
Despite the ongoing trade war, Trump and Carney appeared to get along well during their first face-to-face meeting at the White House.
The two leaders spent about two hours together, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office before heading into private discussions.
“But I want to just congratulate you,” Trump told Carney.
“That was a great election, actually. We were watching it with interest. And I think Canada chose a very talented person, a very good person.”
Carney described their conversations as “very constructive” and said they agreed to have more discussions in the coming weeks.
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