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Little said by any of the 13 premiers following Wednesday’s visit to White House to lobby against tariffs.
After Wednesday’s much-discussed White House meeting with senior advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump, Canada’s premiers mostly remained quiet Thursday on what they talked about.
For the past month, the premiers including Nunavut’s P.J. Akeeagok had touted the trip to Washington, D.C. as a chance to bring the argument against the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian imports directly to the White House.
On Thursday morning, the Arctic premiers took part in a panel discussion at Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Wilson Centre.
It was the first public opportunity for Akeeagok to discuss the visit. Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson and Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai also took part.
But the trip to the White House was not touched on by the premiers during the panel discussion.
They did talk about commercial growth of Arctic industries, Arctic security and defence, particularly in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia and China.
“We are at a pivotal moment in time,” Akeeagok said during the discussion, noting the increased geopolitical focus on the Arctic.
“[Nunavut] is at the heart of the Northwest Passage. We share a very important relationship [with the U.S.] in terms of Norad [the North American Aerospace Defence Command] and the work we do to secure our continent, North America.”
On X, Akeeagok tweeted that he, Pillai and Simpson “met with Stig Piras, Deputy Chief at the Embassy of Denmark, and Greenland Representative Kenneth Hough. Strengthening circumpolar ties is key as we collaborate on economic development, climate action, and Arctic security.”
The premiers, as part of the Council of the Federation, had been in Washington since Tuesday. Akeeagok was scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday night.
While there, they met with government officials and industry leaders to make the case against Trump’s continued threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian exports except oil which would get a 10 per cent tariff. Mexico was also a target of a similar threat.
Trump initially said the tariffs would come into force Feb. 4, but pulled back on Feb. 3 when the two countries were granted a temporary reprieve until March.
In the interim, Trump hasn’t hesitated to wield his tariff stick.
He signed an executive order on Tuesday imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada, as of March 12.
Then on Thursday afternoon, Trump signed a memorandum calling for reciprocal trade tariffs on the country’s trading tariffs from around the globe.
After several days in Washington and Trump’s continued push for tariffs against Canada, and with little to show so far in the way of results, some critics are questioning the purpose of the premiers’ trip.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford chairs the Council of the Federation, the group composed of Canada’s premiers and whose goal is to promote co-operation among provinces and territories. He has led much of the agenda for the trip while being in the middle of a provincial election back home.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the trip nothing more than “a taxpayer funded Washington photo op for partisan purposes,” in a social media post Thursday.
“We’ll be writing to the integrity commissioner and Elections Ontario to look into this and hold him accountable,” Stiles said.
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