The Canadian government is using this week’s G7 meeting to urge fellow member states to take President Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy threats seriously.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly warned Wednesday that “Canada is the canary in the coal mine” concerning the United States’s treatment of its allies in the second Trump administration.
She reiterated her concerns to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, pleading for recognition that “Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally.”
“We have done nothing to justify Trump’s attacks on our country, on our economy and our identity,” Joly told Rubio in their pre-G7 meeting, according to Canadian outlet Firstpost.
The pair are set to hold discussions with their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan over the next two days.
Joly said ahead of the meeting that she intends to “raise the issue of tariffs to coordinate a response with the Europeans and to put pressure on the Americans.”
The Trump administration is upending trade agreements with allied and adversarial nations alike as he wages war against perceived exploitation of the U.S. economy in global commerce.
Canada has been among the most punished U.S. allies since January’s inauguration — Canadians find themselves on the receiving end of tariffs, insults, and possible threats of conquest by their southern neighbor.
Trump slapped a 25% tariff on Canadian goods that do not fall under the generous carve-outs of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement after accusing the Canadian government of failing to prevent the illegal movement of migrants and narcotics across its borders into the U.S., an assertion Canadians criticize as unserious.
With approximately 1.5 million illegal immigrants having poured into the U.S. since former President Joe Biden’s inauguration, only 24,000 came through Canada. The rate of trafficking drugs such as fentanyl is similarly disproportionate at the northern and southern borders.
This has led the Canadian political establishment to rally around an anti-American sentiment, with special ire directed toward Trump’s behavior.
“Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living,” incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a Liberal Party event this week.
“We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” he added. “The Americans, they should make no mistake: In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”
Trump is now looking across the Atlantic Ocean, threatening to answer the European Union’s 50% tariff on U.S. spirits with a whopping 200% tariff on similar products entering American ports.
The president called the EU, of which France, Germany, and Italy are member states, “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”
Wider global conflicts are at the core of the G7’s discussion in Quebec this week, another realm in which Trump’s bombastic presidency is impossible to ignore.
“Peace and stability is at the top of our agenda, and I look forward to discussing how we continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal aggression,” Joly said at the beginning of the summit. “Of course, we want to foster long-term stability as well in the Middle East.”
The U.S. is attempting to mediate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, though recent signals from the Kremlin show Russian President Vladimir Putin has reservations about the agreement as it stands.
Trump made worldwide headlines earlier this month after berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and kicking him out of the White House. It remains to be seen if his administration is prepared to treat Putin with similar hostility at the negotiating table.
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He is also leading negotiations about the future of the Gaza Strip after declaring that the U.S. would take “long-term” ownership of the region and relocate Palestinians living there while infrastructure was rebuilt.
The president walked this proposal back on Wednesday during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, declaring, “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians.”
