By Pepper Parr
March 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
With several days of trotting from photo op to photo op – what do we know about what impact, if any, the Canadian delegation to Washington had on the tarriff situation?
Did they move the needle? Not an inch, not even a fraction of an inch – but that is not why the trip was made.
Had this group not gone to Washington the idea of Canada becoming a 51st state could have had some merit. They don’t care would have been the American response.
How many Canadian politicians were on the trip? And who picked up the tab? Don’t expect to learn much at that level.
What we do know is that Americans do photo ops just as well as we do.
Bob Rae, standing to the left of Mayor Meed Ward in Washington
Having Bob Rae, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, tag along didn’t hurt.
No one got anywhere near the Oval Office – something about security clearances.
And no one embarrassed us.
BRAG will go on about it all being a waste of time and money – the bigger picture has always been a problem for many in that group.
Few will call the trip a smart move – had they not gone the question would have been – why weren’t you there fighting for us ?
There is no love lost between the Gazette and Doug Ford, but give the man credit for the job he is doing. Can’t wait to see what the reaction is going to be on Monday if he does cut off the power Ontario sells to New York, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Cutting power off to Ontario could bring an immediate response from Trump to cut Ontario off from USA natural gas.Make sure you have an electric heater or two.
Once again, in my opinion, this group of “Strong Mayors” seem to want the public to know just how important they are.
In my opinion, there was no point in them going at this time. Donald Trump will not even have been told they had come. What they had to say would have been irrelevant.
If our Federal politicians and the American politicians have little or no say in determining what Donald Trump will do what did this group think they would accomplish?
People need to wait and see how all this tariff mess is finally determined before running off to Washington.
Waste of time and money, and they look ridiculous ( in my opinion).
Penny, agree mostly, in sympathy, but my understanding was that the mayors had another engagement in DC and asked the WH if they could visit while they were there and got clearance. MMW is the chair of the Ontario mayors. The St. Catherine’s mayor didn’t ask for that soon enough and was refused permission.
From my work practice, every such outsider, political-type visit gets covered and recorded in a Briefing Note, so Trump would likely find out through some channel sooner or later. No big deal as you say, but any political voice different than Trump is better than than none.
Our money makes that world go round.
My question to the Mayor is ……who paid for this virtue signalling trip ?
My guess is that they got to see the assistant to the assistant to some low level representative.
Ford did not say he would cut off the power to the USA.He said he might increase the price.
I just read yesterday news that Ford did say he could cut off the power to New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
And I also read that the 25% tariff on 1.5 million residents in the US goes into effect on Monday or Tuesday.
And your above assistant to assistant greeting the Mayors comment, it was still in the White House, and there will still be a Briefing note, and not much for Trump, but they at least did something, and got a feel for the issue on site.
Graham, he actually said both. He’s heading the place 25% tax on the power going down to those northern states. But he also said if USA tariffs continued he would turn off the power “with a smile on my face”.
From my experience, there will be a briefing note made of this, but Trump is already a dictator, and make no mistake about that, so moving the big needle is not going to happen I would say.
However, cutting the power totally off for the three states mentioned, is another matter. I read something yesterday saying that Trump has problems with bilateral boundary and transboundary agreements for water sharing, and wants to argue about that.
The Canada-US Boundary water Treaty (BWT) established the principles and a mechanism for addressing boundary and transboundary water issues and resolving disputes along the Canada-United States boundary. The International Joint Commission is the bilateral agency that oversees the workings of that Treaty.
What Trump does to the IJC administration in his transition staffing will be something to pay attention to.
I can tell you for sure that he wants more water, and will do anything to get what he can.
Hydro power is generated from shared waters at Niagara Falls for example. Other sharing agreements exist in the Great Lakes basin, and downstream. Cutting Ontario power completely off would have a lot of clout, and would definitely get Trumps attention.
His reaction will not be pleasant or predictable I guess. It may be at present, a bargaining and negotiation tool, together with the state Governors.
Can’t run anything without power, and the grids binationally are integrated. Difficult to manage your way out of.