Canada’s premiers say they’re behind the federal government as it tries to talk down U.S. President Donald Trump from his escalated trade war — although not everyone at the table is feeling confident that will happen soon.
The premiers’ annual summer meeting was thrown a curveball on Monday when Washington announced that it will impose 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian imports come Aug. 19.
The U.S. said the new tariffs are in response to what it sees as Canada’s retaliation against American trade policy and discrimination against its motor vehicles, dairy and alcohol.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he’s feeling “positive and bullish” that the two sides can reach an agreement in the short term.
“However, I’m not entirely confident that we will,” he said, during the closing news conference of the Council of the Federation meetings on Wednesday.
“All we can do is to make every effort, myself as a subnational leader, to support our federal government and support those that are sitting at that bargaining table with information from our respective jurisdiction.”
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Prime Minister Mark Carney is sitting down with the premiers on Thursday in Charlottetown. He briefed them virtually earlier this week after committing to intensify trade negotiations over the next 28 days.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday he hoped to land some interim trade agreements with Mexico and Canada this year but suggested the main irritants in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement won’t be dealt with until next year.
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she’s hopeful things won’t drag into 2027.
“I remain as bullish and hopefully more optimistic [than] Premier Moe that we can actually get a deal before the month is up,” she said.
Despite coming into the meetings from different political stripes and views, the premiers were unanimous that they are united against this new hit from the White House and want the existing tariffs dropped.
“Nothing unites like a common opponent and there’s no more popular opponent in Canada right now than Donald Trump,” said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.
However, one of the pressure points emerging from the Charlottetown gathering is whether Canada should withhold energy exports to the U.S. as a leverage point.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada should withhold its potash and oil.
“We are an energy powerhouse and we could dismantle the U.S. if we wanted to,” he said, adding he’s only speaking for Ontario. “They need to feel the pain rather than us constantly feeling the pain.”
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British Columbia Premier David Eby floated cutting off access to minerals, saying it’s “inexplicable” to him that the U.S. announced tariffs not long after he hosted a mining roundtable with their ambassador.
“There’s not this middle road where you attack British Columbians on one hand and the other hand you’re digging up metals, minerals and bringing them south of the border,” he said.
“If the prime minister calls British Columbia and says he needs support with some big sticks to have conversations at the table then we will be there.”
But Smith and Moe flatly rejected the idea of using energy exports as leverage.
“That’s not going to happen,” Smith said on Tuesday.
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While Trump’s latest move colours almost every conversation at the Council of the Federation meeting, host and P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz said there are other important issues on the agenda to strengthen the federation, including energy security and advocating for an increase to health-care transfers.
“We’re not ignoring [Trump’s recent threats], but we’ve got other work to do,” he said.
“We’ve got to show strength and resolve and get through this together.”
In 2023, the federal government, under prime minister Justin Trudeau, hiked the annual Canada Health Transfer by five per cent for five years but are set to revert to three per cent increases come March 2028.
A joint communiqué coming out of Wednesday’s meetings called on the federal government commit to maintaining “at minimum the five per cent” annual transfer growth rate.
