Although Canada faces a major trade war with the US as soon as president-elect Donald Trump enters office in less than a month, Justin Trudeau has been distracted by a leadership crisis that could topple him as prime minister.
The situation has Canada’s regional leaders hopping on flights to influence the incoming Trump administration themselves.
For Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai, that led to chewing the fat with the president-elect’s eldest son, Donald J. Trump Jnr, over meals of black bear spring rolls, turkey, deer and oysters at a hunting lodge in North Carolina.
Don Jnr, as he is often called, has frequented the Yukon for hunting trips, a passion Pillai shares. And the Trumps have ties to the region. More than a century ago, Donald Trump Snr’s grandfather Friedrich Trump capitalised on the Yukon gold rush with a restaurant, bar and brothel in a remote town close to the northern territory’s border.
“I made sure that I brought him, Don, some clothing, because I wanted to remind him that the Trump family businesses were Yukon-built,” Pillai said by phone. The two first met at a conference in Nevada a few months prior.
Pillai said the conversations were “incredibly positive” and an opportunity to “share some data points” and argue that the US-Canada trading deficit that stokes the president-elect’s ire “is only because we’re sending raw materials to them, and they’re creating jobs and value from that”.