Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has officially called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a federal election.
The news comes after a first ministers meeting with the prime minister and premiers of each province to discuss Canada’s response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Trump threatened a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports until Canada’s southern border has been secured against drug smugglers and illegal immigrants crossing into the United States.
In an interview with Global News, Moe said that it’s time for Canadians to have a choice on who they want to represent them when dealing with the incoming Trump administration, which he said had one of the “strongest mandates in recent history.”
“We’re over our four years of what would be considered the norm for our minority administration here in Canada, and maybe what we need is someone to have the same mandate in Canada to negotiate with that incoming Trump administration,” Moe said. “And so we would ask Prime Minister Trudeau to do the right thing, to give Canadians the opportunity to make a choice on who is going to represent them at the table.”
Moe, who won his fifth consecutive majority government at the end of October, said the premiers at the meeting were looking for an action plan from the federal government with a roadmap on how the provinces could help Canada support it.
“This was primarily due to President-elect Trump’s demands around border security, which I’d say we agree with. We want to have increased border security on behalf of Canadians, whether it be drugs or illegal migrants,” Moe said in the interview. “We need to keep those bad things out of Canada and out of Saskatchewan.”
Moe said his contribution to the talks was around increasing border security, hiring troubles with Canadian border security officials as well as troubles with hiring new RCMP officers.
He said he wanted to “advance” the conversation beyond discussing tariffs and get back to talking about cooperation with Canada’s biggest ally and trading partner.
Along with talks of answering the call for heightened border security, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in contrast, has suggested that Canada impose its own tariffs and block energy to the U.S. as retaliatory measures.
Moe suggested Canadians should get a choice in who represents them “at the table” when discussing the federal government seriously looking at placing export tariffs on oil, potash, uranium, and export tariffs on Canadian products.
“So taxing Canadians on products we are exporting is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Any talk of that is not a betrayal of those that work in the industry. It’s a betrayal, I would say more broadly, of Canadians,” Moe said. So we would encourage, if that’s where the federal government is looking for retaliatory action, that they very quickly reconsider.”
He said if they want to escalate into a trade war of sorts, “maybe it’s time” for Canadians to have a say in who they would like to have a four-year mandate to negotiate with the incoming Trump Administration.
He noted that not only did Trump win in a landslide, representing “one of the strongest mandates in recent history” for him to negotiate on behalf of Americans, but the Republicans also won the House and the Senate.