“I am glad cooler heads have prevailed.”
That’s the reaction from PG Chamber Executive Director Neil Godbout (God-boot) after the 25% tariffs slated to be levied against Canada have been pushed back by a month by US President Donald Trump – this following a meeting today (Monday) with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Godbout told Vista Radio in reality this isn’t about goods such as cars or softwood lumber, the bee in the bonnet for Trump is still fentanyl and illegal migrants.
“Obviously, that is a bigger thing for Mexico but it is a concern of border states, bordering Canada as well as and he is right to complain about this (Trump), Canada has not for many years, met its obligations under the terms of its NATO agreement with its military spending.”
“Maybe we should be responding to some of these valid points that the President has laid out.”
Prince George-North Cariboo Conservative MLA, Sheldon Clare stated while a 1.3 billion dollar investment by Ottawa to strengthen the border is a nice touch, adding another high-priced staffer to the fold could have been avoided.
“I don’t know that having another senior bureaucrat assigned to this with some astronomical salary is necessarily solve it but I think putting in the proper resources to ending decriminalization and that is giving police the power to arrest people engaging in illicit activity. That would go a lot further.”
“I think this is a wake-up call for government to try and not panic people and rather to get on the job and provide the leadership that we need.”
Clare added when you have a president such as Trump who is willing to say anything, handling the situation with the proper approach will be key as they hammer out their trade differences.
“When you have someone that tends to be a blurter, and I think Trump is a blurter, and I saw that first hand during his first administration, there needs to be good advice and it needs to be listened to and acted upon thoughtfully. I remember learning that when you have a situation, the first thing to do is get all of the facts, then you consider those facts carefully and take action based on those. I think we are getting into the information phase out of all of this.”
Earlier in the day, Trump backed down with his threats against tariffs in Mexico after the president of that country agreed to tighten up border security between the two nations.
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