Justin Trudeau promised Donald Trump that Canada would increase surveillance over the long undefended joint border, a senior Canadian official said on Sunday. The Canadian prime minister flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with the US president-elect, who has promised to slap tariffs on Canadian imports unless Ottawa prevents undocumented people and drugs from crossing the frontier.
Canada sends 75% of all goods and services exports to the United States and tariffs would badly hurt the economy.
Public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, who sat at the head table with Trudeau and Trump, said the two men discussed additional security measures Canada would be introducing.
“We’re going to look to procure, for example, additional drones, additional police helicopters, we’re going to redeploy personnel, as much as a reassurance exercise, we believe that the border is secure,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“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 added, promising more details in the days and weeks to come.
Canada, he said, would continue to make the case that tariffs would damage both countries, given how interconnected the two economies are.
“I’m confident that the Americans will understand that it’s not in their interest … to proceed in this way,” he said, describing the dinner meeting as very warm and cordial.
Trump said on Saturday he discussed the border, trade and energy in a “very productive” meeting with Trudeau.
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The friendly nature of the dinner contrasts with previous exchanges between the two men.
In 2022, Trump called Trudeau a “far-left lunatic” who had “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates” for requiring truck drivers crossing the border to be vaccinated against Covid-19. In 2018, Trump walked out of a G7 summit in Quebec and tweeted that Trudeau was “very dishonest and weak”.
At the end of the Mar-a-Lago dinner by contrast, LeBlanc said, Trump walked Trudeau to his car and said: “Keep in touch. Call me anytime. Talk soon.”
