Following the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec politicians are reacting to Donald Trump’s Twitter attack of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Very dishonest and weak,” Trump posted after he left the summit for Singapore to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“Our tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy.”
Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal. According to a Canada release, they make almost 100 Billion Dollars in Trade with U.S. (guess they were bragging and got caught!). Minimum is 17B. Tax Dairy from us at 270%. Then Justin acts hurt when called out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
In a rare show of solidarity, both Premier Philippe Couillard and Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee commended Trudeau’s approach at this weekend’s tense meetings, plus his decision to maintain reactionary tariffs to the ones imposed by the Trump administration last month.
“I support Mr. Trudeau's attitude of, I would say, restrained firmness,” the premier said on Monday.
“That was the right attitude to take.”
Lisee said that there was only one approach the prime minister could take, given the circumstances.
“You have to stand up to Trump,” he said. “I mean, that's the only kind of argument that he understands.”
The PQ leader did express worry that Trudeau’s willingness to have US dairy imports could make life more difficult for Canadian farmers.
Fewer protests than expected
If the meetings in La Malbaie were heated, the protests were anything but. In anticipation of heated demonstrations, thousands of police were dispatched to the Quebec City region.
The turnout, however, was far less than anticipated.
Few demonstrators came out, and the marches that did occur were easily contained by the police on site.
“No damage, no violence, peaceful demonstrations – this is exactly what we wanted,” public security minister Martin Coiteux said.
Quebec Solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois had a different reaction, saying that the security measures were an example of wasted taxpayer dollars.
“”It’s a total miscalculation,” he said. “We’re talking here about hundreds of millions of dollars that was spent in a totally useless way.”
