Burlington mayor returns from tariffs delegation in Washington

CHCH News anchor Matt Ingram spoke with Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward after she attended a delegation in Washington D.C.

Ward joined other members of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative – a group of municipal and Indigenous government leaders representing the region on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border to Washington.

She along with 30 leaders passed a resolution opposing the blanket 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on Canadian Imports.

Ward told Ingram, “for me, the value of the trip was the meetings with congressional delegates Wednesday and Thursday – we met with senators, and many people actually on the floor that make decisions, that have the ear of the president and others. Those were the people that we needed to talk to and we did, so I felt that it was really productive: extremely hopeful.”

“When you have mayors of all political stripes on both sides of the border saying the exact same thing – which is that a 25 per cent blankey tariff or higher if we’re to believe today’s reports – would just be devastating for both countries and shouldn’t happen,” she said.

Two Canadian mayors – St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe and Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante – were denied entry to a conference at the White House earlier this week.

U.S. official from the capitol say they did not have enough time to process the requests.

READ MORE: St. Catharines mayor denied access to Washington D.C. conference