‘Prime minister did well’ during meeting with U.S. president

A new relationship between Canada and the United States is currently under construction, B.C. Premier David Eby shared on Wednesday.

A day after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, Carney and the country’s premiers met to discuss the high-stakes meeting.

In a media availability on Wednesday, Eby said that there is a “consensus” among the nation’s premiers that Carney “did well yesterday to baseline a new relationship” between the two countries amid an ongoing trade war.

Eby says there was a sense of a different level of engagement and that Trump was respectful of Carney.

“We were all grateful that the meeting went the way that it did, knowing how some other meetings have gone in that exact same office with other world leaders. So there was appreciation for that,” Eby said, harking back to a recent incident when Trump met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A number of issues were discussed at the First Ministers Meeting, Eby explained, including the film industry and the softwood lumber industry.

“There’s a growing consensus among major timber-producing provinces that there’s an opportunity for an agreement with the United States as one of the early opportunities to reset our trading relationship with the U.S.,” he said.

“In particular, there’s literally billions of dollars of tariff money sitting in a bank account that has been charged to Canadian producers. It is money that is notionally owed to Canadian producers, but in settlements, it’s typically divided in some way between American and Canadian producers. So there’s an incentive on the U.S. side and on the Canadian side to get a deal.”

Eby refuted Trump’s previous claims that Canadian timber poses a threat to the United States’ national security.

“It poses no threat to Americans except for more affordable housing,” Eby said.

“If the meeting today was any indication, that there’s an opportunity for softwood lumber to lead the way in terms of opening the door again to concrete and meaningful discussions that benefit both Americans with cheaper building materials and Canadians with support for that as well as growth in our economy.”

Eby explained that premiers from across the country expressed their concern over Trump’s threats to impose a 100 per cent tariff on all foreign-made films. Eby said the local film industry needs to know that the federal government has their backs.

“Implementation challenges aside, it’s obviously hugely worrying for the film sector and it’s hard to imagine the president doubling the charges for Netflix for Americans, and hoping that that’s a winning political strategy, or cutting the number of films and TV shows that they watch by half or more,” he stated.

Eby went on to share that bail reform, crime, and justice were also spoken about Wednesday. Eby explained that he has raised the need for reform at the federal level, and “it’s our hope that the prime minister acts very quickly on that.”

While not addressing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s bill to allow a separatist referendum, Eby doubled down on British Columbia being “all in for Canada.”

“In this province, we understand that this is the moment for all of us to stand strong together, arm in arm as a country, and that doesn’t take anything away from our reasonable demands that the federal government ensure we have access to the same level of funding, the same opportunities that Quebec and Ontario get, and the same level of respect. But the the idea of separating here is is a non starter,” he said.

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