GOP senator offers soothing words about ‘special relationship’ with Canada
As U.S. officials heap scorn on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Republican senator is trying to ease international trade tensions by calling attention to an unusual paper mill in Maine that is “truly intertwined” with its cross-border neighbours in New Brunswick.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins says the two countries may have had their differences over the years when it comes to subsidies, but she stressed that Canada remains “a close ally, good friend and one of America’s biggest trading partners.”
In a tweet Sunday, Collins said Maine’s “special relationship” with Canada includes daily cross-border commutes for Canadian nurses who work in Maine.
“In Maine, we have a special relationship with Canada,” she wrote. “Many border communities are truly intertwined . ... We must preserve this friendship.”
She pointed to the Twin Rivers Paper Co. mill in Madawaska, Maine, which gets the pulp it needs from a pipeline that extends across the border from a mill in Edmundston, N.B.
The privately owned U.S. company also operates a lumber mill in Plaster Rock, N.B., which produces wood chips and biomass for the Edmundston operation.
Cyrille Simard, the mayor of Edmundston, said the town of 16,000 was built on international trade, which is why he’s worried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasingly bellicose attitude toward Canada.
“Trade is part of who we are,” Simard said in an interview Monday. “It’s been like that for hundreds of years. The example of the mill is just one example. There’s a lot of businesses in Edmundston that do a lot of work in the United States — and the same is true on the other side.”
About 300 employees work at the mill in Edmundston, and another 500 work at the mill across the Saint John River in Madawaska, where specialized paper is produced for the phar- maceutical and food industries, Simard said.
“It’s not the kind of rhetoric we want to see,” Simard said. “Our economies are intertwined so deeply now. Both sides have to work together.”
Collins’ peacemaking comments on Twitter came as Trump and his advisers hurled abuse at Trudeau following a G7 summit in Quebec’s Charlevoix region.
However, her tweet was met with a chorus of angry replies that mainly implored her to confront Trump about the issue.
“Susan Collins ... without action your words are like vapour,” said one post. “History will judge you and your colleagues harshly.”
“Don’t tell Twitter; tell Trump,” said another.
Collins wasn’t the only Republican senator to speak out after Trump posted a tweet from Air Force One on Saturday describing Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak.”
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake also took to Twitter on Sunday, saying: “Fellow Republicans, this is not who we are. This cannot be our party.” The tweet was linked to an article that quoted two of Trump’s advisers lashing out at Trudeau.
Trump infuriated his G7 allies recently by slapping them with the hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum — a move that prompted Canada and the European Union to threaten duties of their own.