WASHINGTON — Canada's premiers were headed to the White House Wednesday afternoon for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior advisers, as Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada will not strike first in a tariff battle with the United States.
A news release from the Council of the Federation, which includes all provincial and territorial premiers, did not say which members of Trump’s team would be in the meeting. Other engagements premiers had scheduled were cancelled to accommodate the White House meeting.
"Make no mistake about it, the president knows we are here," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier Wednesday. "He knows we are concerned. He knows we are working across the aisle … We just want to move forward. We’d like zero tariffs, that’s what we’d like."
All 13 premiers descended on the United States capital this week for the first time in history. The effort reflects rising alarm among Canadians about Trump's unpredictable tariff strategy.
Trump signed an order Monday to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including imports from Canada, on March 12. Those duties could come on top of across-the-board tariffs on all Canadian imports, with a lower 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy, which were temporarily delayed until at least March 4.
A White House official confirmed that if both rounds of tariffs are implemented, the duties would stack on top of each other. That would mean a tariff of up to 50 per cent on Canadian steel and aluminum exports to the U.S.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc was also in Washington Wednesday, where he was set to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trump's economic policy adviser Kevin Hassett at the White House.
LeBlanc first met Lutnick in November at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled there for a dinner with the president-elect just a few days after he made his initial tariff threat.
LeBlanc insisted there's still time to persuade Trump not to launch a trade war.
"I'm not pessimistic," LeBlanc told reporters ahead of the meeting. "I'm optimistic by nature. I'm encouraged by the conversations we've had with Mr. Lutnick."
Canada has promised to retaliate in kind if Trump moves on his promise of tariffs, and laid out a list of products that would be targeted after the president signed his initial executive order on duties on Feb. 1.
Ottawa put those retaliatory tariffs on hold two days later when Trump agreed to pause his tariff threat for a month, and after Trudeau outlined Canada's plan to ramp up border security and appoint a fentanyl czar.
LeBlanc said Ottawa will not make the first move in a tariff war because it's not a fight Canada wants.
"We're certainly not going to do anything before the Americans make their ultimate decision,” he said.
"What the Americans have said to us privately, and what they have said publicly, is that we have a number of weeks to work together, and President Trump's words were very precise, to structure an economic deal with Canada. That's exactly the conversation we're going to continue today."
Trudeau — speaking in Brussels, where he was meeting with European Union leaders — said there is a third threat of even more tariffs landing April 1 coming out of the executive order Trump signed on inauguration day looking at economic and trade imbalances between the two countries.
Trump also has floated the idea of taxing Canadian auto imports at between 50 and 100 per cent.
Provincial and territorial leaders remained optimistic Wednesday that diplomatic efforts can still push Trump away from implementing duties — even as predicted snowstorms compelled Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King, Newfoundland Premier Andrew Furey and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston to go home early.
The last few weeks have demonstrated Canada can get results when Canadians stick up for themselves, said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.
Kinew said it's not a time to be issuing ultimatums and instead called the premiers' mission in Washington a "charm offensive."
"The purpose of the trip here is diplomacy," Kinew said. "It's the warm and hearty handshake, making the case that the Canadian-American friendship has been the best in the world for decades and decades."
Experts have said that Trump’s tariff threats are likely a negotiating tactic meant to rattle Canada and Mexico ahead of a 2026 review of the trilateral continental trade pact.
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement was negotiated to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first Trump administration.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she believed the president when he said the first tariff threats were about border security and fentanyl, and she thinks Canada’s actions should satisfy Trump’s concerns.
“I think diplomacy is working,” Smith said. “I think that the fact that we got a 30-day reprieve was because we agreed to work on the cross-border problem of fentanyl.”
Monday’s tariff order was about the trade agreement, Smith said. She said Canada needs a federal election soon so that it has a mandate to return to the negotiating table.
"What I’ve seen from this president is he’s prepared to make a deal," Smith said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2025.
Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press
