Latest news with #51ststate
CBC
21-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Republican senator says Trump's 51st state rhetoric not 'constructive' during Ottawa visit
A U.S. Republican senator says she doesn't think President Donald Trump's past comments about making Canada the 51st state are helpful as the two countries are locked in negotiations to reach some sort of trade agreement. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was in Ottawa as part of a bipartisan delegation meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday morning. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Murkowski was asked about Trump's taunts about Canada becoming part of the U.S. "I cannot explain President Trump's rhetoric about the 51st state. That is his statement [and] I think it has been made very, very clear that most view that as nothing more than a positioning statement… something to maybe agitate," she said. "I don't think that's constructive, quite honestly. Certainly here in Canada you can sense that there is a direct hostility, if you will, to that suggestion." Since his re-election in November, Trump has said multiple times that he wants to see Canada join the U.S. as its 51st state — though his rhetoric has cooled in recent weeks. Trump was asked about the idea of Canada joining the U.S. as he was leaving the G7 meeting in Alberta last month and said he still thinks the country should become a state. "I think it's a much better deal from Canada, but, you know, it's up to them," the president told reporters. WATCH | Trump asked about 51st state comments: Trump asked about 51st state comments, Canada's potential role in Golden Dome 1 month ago Trump and Carney have been in talks to reach a trade agreement after the U.S. slapped a series of tariffs on Canada earlier this year. Carney had set a deadline for an agreement to be reached a few times but has most recently pushed it back to Aug. 1. Murkowski was joined in Ottawa by Democratic senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada. Carney briefly spoke to reporters, saying he had a "good meeting" with the U.S. delegation. The senators showed off Canada-U.S. friendship bracelets they wore into the meeting. "Four senators here, [from] both political parties, spent the morning working to build bridges, not throw wrenches," Wyden said of the trade talks. Wyden said he and his colleagues covered a number of topics with Carney, including Canada's digital services tax and softwood lumber. The federal government rescinded the tax on companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb last month after Trump called for its removal. Wyden said Monday that he wants Canada to permanently kill the tax in legislation and suggested Carney was open to that idea. The Oregon senator also said he and his colleagues were pushing for a quota on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the U.S. "Softwood lumber is enormously important and we asked about how we could make progress on dealing with that issue," Wyden said. Carney says softwood quota is a possibility The prime minister suggested last week he is open to a trade agreement that includes quotas. "There is normally some element of managed trade that comes out of any agreement that comes there, it can include quotas, can include a variety of trade factors," Carney said. Softwood lumber has been a sticking point in Canada-U.S. relations for decades. The two countries have been without a softwood deal since 2015.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Airline traffic in Canada is up — just not to the United States
Traffic was up for both domestic and international flights at Canada's largest airports in April, with the exception of trips to the United States, according to Statistics Canada's monthly data on air passenger travel. Trans-border traffic to the U.S. dropped for the third month in a row to 1.1 millon, 5.8 per cent lower than in April 2024. Statistics Canada said trans-border passenger counts were also significantly lower (down 12.5 per cent) than the pre-pandemic level recorded in April 2019. Passengers travelling to the U.S. accounted for 25.5 per cent of the total number of screened passengers in April, down from the 28.1 per cent recorded in 2024. For the third straight month, all four of the largest airports recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States. Outside of the U.S., however, the number of Canadians travelling internationally by air was 1.4 million in April — up 7.1 per cent over the same month in 2024, and sharply higher (up 19 per cent) than the pre-pandemic level posted in April 2019. Meanwhile, Canadians are also choosing to travel within the country. Domestic passenger traffic was up by 7.4 per cent to two million in April compared to the previous year. This modestly surpasses the 2019 pre-pandemic level by 1.5 per cent, said StatCan. Canada's eight largest airports, which includes Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International, Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International and Vancouver International, posted higher volumes of passenger traffic year over year in April. Overall, 4.5 million passengers were screened at the eight airports, up 3.6 per cent over 2024 and up 1.9 per cent over 2019. Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International posted the largest year-over-year increase, at 8.6 per cent. The decline in trans-border travel as Canadians forgo visits to the United States led major airline Air Canada to lower its financial forecast for the year. Early last month, Air Canada chief executive Michael Rousseau said the noise around tariffs and trade disputes 'definitely had an impact' on the widely reported decline in interest among Canadians for travel to the U.S. And in late May, WestJet Airlines CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech, speaking at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event, said summer bookings were down by the 'mid-to-high teens' (percentage wise) from the same period last year. 'When all the rhetoric started around 51st state and tariffs and so on, we could see in our bookings how angry Canadians became,' he said. Preliminary April data released by Statcan last month showed that Canadians' air travel to and from the U.S. had dropped 19.9 per cent from 2024, while return trips via land were down 35.2 per cent. Air Canada lowers 2025 outlook as U.S. travel declines Canadians' return travel from U.S. plunges as Trump tariffs hit By the end of April, combined return trips from the U.S. (via air and road) had fallen 22 per cent from a year ago. • Email: dpaglinawan@
