REGINA — The political fallout from the latest breakdown of trade negotiations between the United States and Canada has hit Saskatchewan.
The previous night, President Donald Trump declared on social media that he was breaking off trade negotiations with Canada again, over an ad from the government of Ontario quoting former President Ronald Reagan’s criticism of tariffs in a radio address from 1987.
In response to the latest breakdown of negotiations the government of Saskatchewan issued a statement Friday afternoon. The statement simply read as follows:
“The Government of Saskatchewan is deeply concerned that the United States has ceased trade negotiations with Canada. We are calling on both the Canadian and American federal governments to get back to the negotiating table as soon as possible to resolve these trade disputes.”
At the legislature on Friday, opposition leader Carla Beck was calling for a strong stance from Saskatchewan against the latest actions of the U.S. President.
“Donald Trump is clearly a bully, and he showed that again last night,” Beck told reporters.
“Police respond to strength. That's what we need to show across provincial lines, across political lines in this country, and we need to find that sense of urgency again. We cannot take this line down. We need to work together and make sure that we are doing everything in our control to ensure that we are saving jobs, industry, here at home, and right across this country.”
As for what could be done that was within Saskatchewan’s control, Beck called for getting “rail lines, those pipelines, those transmission lines, power lines” built across this country. She also called for taking “that American booze back off the shelves for a start and show that we are not going to take this line down. Let's bring back procurement policies that are actually going to benefit Canadian companies again, something that we saw Scott Moe and the Sask Party back away from in early days."
"It's clear, it is so clear that cozying up to Donald Trump in this situation is not a position of strength. We need to show strength right across this country.”
The situation also drew a reaction on social media from former Premier Brad Wall, who was critical of Ontario Premier Doug Ford for provoking this latest negative response from Trump with the advertisement.
“His asinine threat to shut off power to the US, the crown royal pour, and now this,” Wall stated. “Premier Ford should understand that while these stunts might be good politics w/ the ‘elbows- up’ crowd in Ont they are worse than reckless in terms of our economy.”
