Federal cabinet ministers meet to discuss incoming Trump administration

A group of federal cabinet ministers are huddling in a closed-door meeting Friday to work on Canada’s strategy for dealing with the incoming Donald Trump administration.

A recently revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations made up of senior ministers is meeting for the first time since Trump left office in early 2021.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who chairs the committee, is set to take questions from media later today on Parliament Hill.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters heading into the meeting that Ottawa has a plan already and now the government will look to put it in motion.

The mercurial president-elect had campaigned on imposing across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports and deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

That’s stoked fears that his term in the White House could deal a blow to the Canadian economy and cause a sudden influx of migrants at the border.