Canada Says New Border Restrictions ‘Imminent’ After Trudeau’s Meeting With Trump at Mar-a-Lago
‘It’s important, I think, to show Canadians and the Americans that we’re stepping up in a visible and muscular way’ says one Canadian official.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s government says new border restrictions are “imminent” just two days after the Canadian head of state traveled to Mar-a-Lago to discuss a devastating 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports that President-elect Trump proposed in recent days. Trump has said he would impose the tariffs on both Canada and Mexico goods unless illegal immigration and the flow of drugs are dealt with.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Dominic LeBlanc, says new security measures to stop the flow of migrants to the northern parts of America would be announced in the coming days.
“We’re going to look to procure, for example, additional drones, additional police helicopters, we’re going to redeploy personnel … we believe that the border is secure,” Mr. LeBlanc, who was at the Mar-a-Lago dinner, told the CBC.
“It’s important, I think, to show Canadians and the Americans that we’re stepping up in a visible and muscular way, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” he says.
Trump and Mr. Trudeau met for more than two hours at the president-elect’s South Florida club on Friday night, where they dined with officials and discussed ways to curb the flow of immigrants and deadly drugs like fentanyl.
Mr. Trudeau said the meeting was “excellent” and that he looked forward to working with Trump again. The president-elect said in a statement on Truth Social that Mr. Trudeau “has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families.”
The president-elect seemed pleased to be dining with the Canadian prime minister, given he was shown grinning from ear-to-ear in a photo posted on X by Mr. Trudeau. After the dinner, Trump said the meeting had gone well.
“I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social.
The leader of the Canadian opposition Conservative party, Pierre Poilievre — who, according to polls, could be prime minister in just a few months — said Sunday that Mr. Trudeau is trying to clean up ten years of failed leadership without any real plan to please Trump to an extent where the 47th president won’t impose his 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods.
“The reality is that Trudeau has lost control of the deficit, of immigration and of our border. In less than two months, President Trump will come into office. He’s threatened the possibility of imposing tariffs unless there is action to address Trudeau’s broken border,” Mr. Poilievre said, according to CTV News.
The Conservative leader says his government would pass a strong border and asylum restriction bill “quickly” in order to get immigration under control.
“I love real refugees,” Mr. Poilievre, whose wife is a Venezuelan immigrant, says. “Our country was built in large part by real refugees who were genuinely fleeing danger, like my wife. But I have no time for people who lie to come into our country, and that is the problem we have to cut off.”
Trump says he had a similarly productive conversation with President Sheinbaum of Mexico, whom he has also threatened with a 25 percent tariff. Trump and Ms. Sheinbaum spoke on the phone just days after the tariff threats were made, and he says she agreed to take a harder line on immigration, though Ms. Sheinbaum said Trump’s claim she agreed to shut the border entirely was not true.