Days after meeting U.S. president-elect Donald Trump in Florida, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he is “confident” that Trump’s team will understand it’s not in the interest of the United States to go forward with a threat to put steep tariffs on Canadian goods.
On Friday, LeBlanc flew to West Palm Beach, Fla., with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a surprise meeting with Trump and some of his advisers.
The meeting came amid Trump’s threat to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico on Jan. 20, 2025 — his inauguration day. Trump cited border security as one of the reasons behind his threat.
In an interview on Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, LeBlanc said that Canada has to “make the case” about the integrity of the Canada-U.S. border and the economic consequences of tariffs for both countries.
“I’m confident that the Americans will understand that it’s not in their interest or in Canada’s interest, obviously, to proceed in this way,” he told host Rosemary Barton.
A Canadian government source who spoke confidentially to CBC News said there was no guarantee that tariffs are coming off the table, but the Canadians left the meeting with optimism that a solution is attainable.
The source also said Trudeau promised to boost security along the Canada-U.S. border and specifically told Trump he’ll increase helicopter patrols.
LeBlanc said the Canadian delegation discussed its concern “about gun smuggling coming from the south towards the north” with Trump and his team.
When asked if Trump likes the prime minister, LeBlanc said “very much so.”
“I saw very much the mutual respect and warmth between the two leaders,” he said. “I thought it was very positive.”
‘A position of weakness,’ Poilievre says
During a news conference on Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that “while I’m a critic of Mr. Trudeau, I did feel badly that he went in with such a position of weakness.”
“Normally when a prime minister goes to the United States to meet a president, they’re looking to make gains,” Poilievre said. “What gains did we hear from Mr. Trudeau? None. He’s just trying to limit losses.”
The Conservative leader also said that Canada needs “a strong prime minister who has the brains and backbone to put Canada first and fight for our workers and our security.”
When asked by reporters if he or anyone in his party has been in touch with Trump’s transition team since the U.S. election on Nov. 5, Poilievre said he’s “not the prime minister.”
Trump values relationships, says former adviser
Everett Eissenstat was deputy director of Trump’s National Economic Council during his first term. In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live, he said one thing that is unique about Trump is “how much he values personal relationships.”
“I think the willingness of Prime Minister Trudeau to fly down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with him personally is a very significant move and one that I think was appreciated,” he said.
According to Eissenstat, Trump has “found that tariffs can be a very significant motivator to get economies to move in a direction that he thinks is beneficial to the United States.”
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with former Trump administration economic adviser Everett Eissenstat about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with the U.S. president-elect, Trump’s strategy on tariffs and how Canada should respond.
When Trump issued his threat on Monday, he said in a social media post that “this Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
When asked what he thinks Trump is trying to get out of his tariff threat, Eissenstat said the president-elect is “trying to solve some of the long-standing problems we’ve seen globally.”
“I think this is part of a bigger picture that he’s trying to empower the United States to reorient [and] chase some things that he believes are very important,” he said.
The lesson for the Canadian government, Eissenstat said, is that “personal relationships matter. And being dismissive or condescending about these concerns isn’t going to work.
“It was a very interesting weekend for sure,” he said. “And I think a relationship that I’ll be watching very, very closely.”