Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on the margins of the APEC Summit in the Philippines.
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Obama cited the “incredible excitement that Justin generated with his campaign” as the two announced a tentative visit to the White House, perhaps next year.
“Canadians right across the country, as well as our friends and neighbours internationally in many countries, have felt that Canada hasn’t been doing enough on the environmental front”, he said as Obama looked on. Indeed, Trudeau’s young charisma has electrified the nation in a way that most likely did not expect.
Unlike Prime Minister Trudeau, who shared details of his chat with President Putin, Prime Minister Harper left his spokesman to recount the 2014 encounter.
Trudeau favors Canada’s ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade agreement championed by U.S. President Barack Obama that is meant to become the core of a region-wide free trade bloc.
Writing about the Facebook video released by AJ+, an Al-Jazeera network spin-off, the newsblog Coconuts Manila said, “Mexicans reacted with a resounding “yuck!’ toward the Philippines” overwhelming interest in their president”.
Local activists with the group BAN Toxics are planning a candle lighting ceremony to bring attention to the rotting rubbish, and Greenpeace has called on the Canadian prime minister to “take a stand and have the heart to make a decision on this ugly issue”.
Despite occasional missteps on the trip, he was a top draw in the Philippines, where a Twitter hashtag – #APEChottie – sprung up to ask readers to decide if Trudeau or Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto was the better-looking leader.
The Liberal government has promised to consult with Canadians on the massive trade pact and put it to a vote in Parliament. “I know Justin has to agree with what’s happened”.
Two potential irritants were downplayed.
Regarding ISIL, Trudeau told reporters that Canada will do “more than its part” and remain a strong member of the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“Anything that can highlight that perspective – that positive engagement that Canada wants to have on a world stage – at a time when quite frankly we need Canada to engage positively on the world stage, I [will] take as a positive [development]”, he said. A separate Ipsos poll conducted in both the United States and the United Kingdom found this number jumps to 81 per cent, fuelling debate in the U.S.to halt refugee resettlement programs.
Trudeau clarified that solid solutions are now on the process and promised to fix loopholes in Canadian shipment policies.
Both leaders are dealing with a backlash in their respective countries over taking in Syrian refugees amid fears that an influx could pose a security risk.
At the time, a Russian Federation spokesman, who spoke on condition he wouldn’t be identified by Canadian reporters, said that Prime Minister Harper told President Putin, “you should go away from Ukraine”, to which Mr. Putin replied, “It’s impossible since we are not there”.
“My expectation is after the initial spasm of rhetoric, people will settle down”, he added.
The other irritant in the relationship is the president’s recent rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline to move what he dubbed as dirty Alberta oil to US refineries. “The Prime Minister has said that he wants to review it. But they have an terrible lot of companies in Canada who were going to do work”.
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It may come down to semantics, but 38 per cent would choose the bombing mission over a training mission if they were in charge, as opposed to 28 per cent the other way around but David Valentin, executive VP of Mainstreet Research, says more Canadians approve of a training mission over a bombing mission.
