Even when U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t in the room, his actions and words loom.
Such was the case during a Friday afternoon address by Premier David Eby to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
“The president has a specific plan which is to harm Canada’s economy, to damage our economy, to weaken us as a country, with an implicit and sometimes explicit threat of annexing Canada,” Eby said from the podium.
Eby’s address was a chance to walk the business community through the provincial budget released this week.
And while board of trade president Bridgitte Anderson suggested to him at one point that aspects of the budget “missed the mark,” Eby’s speech largely seemed to be well received.
He invoked patriotism at times.
“The unity that this has brought out in Canadians across the country,” Eby said.
“We’re standing tall, everyone’s saying in one voice. Both official languages. Sometimes many other languages. We’ll never be the 51st state.”
That comment brought on applause, before he later touched on advances on streamlining interprovincial trade with a quip implying sales will be one-way traffic when it comes to our relationship with Ontario.
“Now people in Ontario can enjoy buying delicious B.C. wine, craft beers, and people in B.C. can enjoy…selling those products to people in Ontario,” Eby said, to laughter.
Eby also discussed previously announced tariff response measures, such as applying tolls to commercial vehicles travelling through B.C. to Alaska.
And he also floated the possibility of removing all U.S. alcohol from liquor stores, not just those from red states.
It came on a day where Trump once again threatened further tariff measures against Canada.
