Local New Democrats look at impact of Trump
Federal, provincial members try to get in front of possible shifts in U.S.
Local New Democrats called for a united front to deal with the regional impact of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Windsor-Essex NDP representatives met Friday to unify their positions and plot strategies on issues of trade and the American border.
“We put our schedule together to put our heads together,” Windsor Tecumseh MP Cheryl Hardcastle said during a strategy session at the United Way office on Giles Boulevard.
Hardcastle said the group of MPs and MPPs discussed the possible renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the difficulties some have had crossing the border.
“We talked about the Trump administration and what that means for us here,” said Essex MP Tracey Ramsey. “It’s certainly a hot topic in Ottawa right now.”
One of the items at the top of the agenda was Trump’s executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from crossing the border into the U.S. They said this is already affecting Canadians.
“We have a lot of people in our communities who have found themselves having difficulty at the border as a result of the Muslim ban,” Ramsey said. “A lot of families have members on either side. And lots of people work in the States but live here.”
Ramsey cited a case NDP Leader Tom Mulcair spoke about in the House of Commons involving Canadian students who were denied entry into Canada at a border in Quebec despite reassurances that the executive order would not affect Canadians.
“These are very serious issues at our border. And certainly looking at our new bridge crossing, it’s important that we get that bridge crossing right,” Ramsey said.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse is pushing for a public customs agency at the new crossing instead of a public-private partnership.
“This is why,” Ramsey said of the need for a public customs agency. “We need to ensure that citizens are protected and that they’re able to cross that border for whatever purpose they need to.”
Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky also pointed to the public school board’s decision to disallow trips across the U.S. border as a sign of the times.
“What the president over there is doing greatly affects what is happening here,” Gretzky said.
Masse said he will share the party concerns when he meets with U.S. representatives in the months to come.
Another issue facing Windsor is the potential renegotiation of NAFTA. After meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump said that NAFTA needed “tweaking” without going into specifics.
But Ramsey, who is also the federal trade critic, said that a NAFTA renegotiation might not be all bad news.
“When we’re looking at NAFTA, we have to look at where we can see some improvements,” said Ramsey. “The original NAFTA had an environmental and labour agreement that sat separately. Those should be entrenched into the main agreement.”
But when it comes to a possible “tweaking” or renegotiation, “jobs are top of mind,” according to Ramsey, saying it’s possible that changes to the trade agreement could affect local dairy farmers and manufacturers.
“A lot of jobs are tied to the U.S.,” Ramsey said. “We want to ensure that we don’t see job losses as a side-effect of this tweaking.”
A lot of jobs are tied to the U.S. We want to ensure that we don’t see job losses as a sideeffect of this tweaking.