Canada’s prime minister has called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to increase spending on security and border defense to ease the concerns of President-elect Donald Trump, with the leader of the largest province calling the federal government “slow to react” and “stuck on the back foot.”
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Published on 28 Nov 2024 • 3 minutes of reading
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(Bloomberg) — Canada’s prime minister is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to increase spending on border security and defense to ease U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s concerns, with the leader of the largest province calling the federal government “slow to react” and “stuck on its back foot.”
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Ontario’s Doug Ford said after a meeting of premiers and premiers on Wednesday that he has been pushing the Trudeau government for months to show that Canada cares about U.S. economic and security concerns. He said there was no rush to move.
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“I express my hope that this evening’s meeting is the beginning of a more proactive approach by the federal government, including by showing that it takes our border security very seriously,” Ford said in a statement. Otherwise, he said, he risks “the economic chaos of Trump’s tariffs.”
The blunt statement, delivered after a meeting in which Trudeau hopes will unite the prime minister under the banner of “Team Canada” to counter the threat of tariffs, underscores a major challenge for the prime minister during the second Trump administration. While Trudeau is new in office and relatively popular at first, it is no longer small – and he faces the inaugural coterie with his own grievances about his policies.
Ford was joined by Quebec Premier Francois Legault, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who all made statements demanding stronger action from the government. Legault, for his part, has been concerned about migrants entering the province from the US, while Smith took the opportunity to criticize Trudeau’s emissions cap in the oil and gas sector.
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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc walked out of the inaugural meeting to stress that they plan to increase border security. LeBlanc said that would include investments in local law enforcement and police, but did not provide a specific dollar amount or timeline.
There is a need for “visible and public measures” at the border, LeBlanc said. “The plan is here, it will develop, and we will assure Canadians and Americans that there is someone.”
“Now is not the time to squabble among ourselves,” Freeland said. “There was really strong agreement among everyone that this is a challenge. The way we meet the challenge and the way we serve Canadians is by being strong, smart and united and playing for Team Canada.
Trudeau called the meeting this week after several provincial leaders raised the alarm over Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico unless those countries stop the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migrants across their borders – although the problem is largely limited to crossing into Mexico.
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On Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with Trump, telling him that her country had stopped migrants from reaching the US border. Trump then posted on Truth Social that Sheinbaum “has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.” (Trump has yet to post about the phone call with Trudeau earlier this week.)
Canadian prime ministers have all called for more spending on law enforcement. The leaders of Alberta and Ontario each pledged to use local police forces to bolster border security, and Manitoba premier Kinew said the federal government told him he would welcome new resources.
Kinew also pushed Canada to spend at least 2% of its gross domestic product on the military, a target agreed upon as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On Monday, Trudeau reiterated in a speech that the country will reach that target by 2032.
Ford and other prime ministers have called on Canada to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the US if necessary, a move that would exclude Mexico from current regional trade agreements, given its economic ties to China. While Trudeau has also been concerned about Mexico’s trade with China, he said he would prefer to maintain the current trilateral trade agreement and sees Mexico as a “solid partner.”
—With assistance from Brian Platt.
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