Canada will take a “pragmatic” approach as it prepares for Donald Trump to win a second term as president of the United States in November, said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.
“We will be ready, whatever the Americans choose. The United States is our greatest ally, our best friend,” she declared Monday on the sidelines of the cabinet retreat being held in Montreal.
Mme Joly refused to say how Ottawa intends to prepare and what it fears. However, she affirmed that the Trudeau government was able to “manage” Republican and Democratic administrations in the past.
Moments earlier, his fellow Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, noted that “one thing former President Trump understands is jobs.”
Canada is now “more integrated with the Americans than it has ever been,” he said, so that “millions of jobs depend on what we have achieved over the last decade “, which will be “an asset” if Mr. Trump were to find himself in the Oval Office.
Mr. Champagne cited integration in the biomanufacturing, semiconductor and battery sectors as support. “I will remind you that the two factories we have here in Quebec – Bécancour: Ford and GM – will serve all North American factories,” he said.
On Tuesday, on the last day of their retirement with a view to resuming parliamentary work, the Liberal ministers will focus on the Canadian-American relationship. They will meet in particular with the Canadian Ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman.