Canada
Two Canadian mayors denied accreditation, skip White House meeting
Two Canadian mayors will be sitting out a White House meeting today after they were denied accreditation.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe are in Washington, D.C, as part of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.
The group says its Canadian and U.S. mayors have regularly been attending meetings at the White House for the annual Great Lakes Day event.
This time, the group was told that diplomatic protocol meant there wasn’t enough time to process the requests of the Canadian mayors.
Three American mayors will attend Friday’s meeting instead, but the cities’ initiative said the name of the White House representative at the meeting is confidential.
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath is also among the nearly 30 elected officials from both sides of the border in Washington as part of the Great Lakes group.
In an email, Horwath called the exclusion of the Canadian mayors “disappointing.”