OTTAWA, February 27. /TASS/. Canadian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has spoken out against the proposal by opposition New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh not to invite US President Donald Trump to the G7 summit due to his statements about the 51st state.
"President Trump obviously has said a number of things that have offended Canadians, made many Canadians very angry. <…> But at the end of the day, we need to find pathways to work with the Americans. We are not going to sort of cut ourselves off and float into the ocean. They are going to be our neighbors going forward, and we need to find pathways to have better conversations than what we're having right now," he told reporters on Wednesday before a closed meeting chaired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the topic of American tariffs.
Trump has repeatedly expressed the opinion that many Canadians are in favor of their country becoming the 51st state of the United States. He believes that such a union would bring economic stability to Canada and protect it from external threats, which, according to the American president, come, in particular from Russia and China. In response, Prime Minister Trudeau stated that Canada will never become the 51st state of the United States.
On February 1, Trump signed an executive order increasing tariffs on goods from Canada, China, and Mexico from February 4. However, on February 3, Trudeau, after a conversation with Trump said that the United States would suspend the imposition of tariffs on Canada for 30 days. On February 24, Trump said that the US administration will continue to impose new customs duties on its trading partners "as scheduled."
The G7 summit will be held in the Canadian resort area of Kananaskis (Alberta) on June 15-17.