Manitoba’s Premier says Canada’s Premiers are on side when it comes to recognizing the importance of trade.
Trade has emerged as a top of mind issue among the premiers attending the summer meeting of the Council of the Federation in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says he doesn’t recall a time in Canada when more people have recognized the importance of having strong trading relationships.
The frustration that we feel is not with the response we’ve been getting from most of the meetings and most of the contacts we’ve had, whether it be from the House of Representatives, from state representatives, U.S. Governors, even the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, who’s I think been a very positive force for open borders for agriculture commodities. Our frustration, quite openly, is with the Presidential Office and with the uncertainty that is being created there about what tactic will follow tomorrow let alone next week.
That frustration, however, can’t stop us from continuing to build the strong relationships that we need to with other like minded people and can not stop us from continuing to work very very hard to persuade those who need to be persuaded. Those persuadables are people we shouldn’t forget either. It’s no good to just go down to D.C. and sit and talk to the same people who nodded their heads and agreed with us last time. That’s a useless meeting quite frankly.
What we have to do is extend our reach further than just the folks in Minnesota who generally really understand how important Manitoba is to them but also extend to extend to people in the Carolinas and people in the mid-west, Arizona, Colorado, areas of the United States where traditionally we haven’t done a ton of business but none the less they need us as a market and we need them.
~ Brian Pallister, Premier Manitoba
Pallister says the Premiers are committed to working cooperatively and individually to get the word out there that Canada is open for business.
