The highly-anticipated meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump took place on Monday. It was their first official meeting and it took place in Washington under the watchful eye of thousands.
According to a joint statement between the two, the leaders, “Affirmed their longstanding commitment to close cooperation in addressing both the challenges facing our two countries and problems around the world.
“No two countries share deeper or broader relations than Canada and the United States. We are bound together by our history, our values, our economy, our environment, and our resolve to improve the lives of our citizens. Our close relationship and ongoing collaboration allow us to successfully meet any challenges we may face over the coming years, and to build a prosperous future for the people of both countries.”
However, there are stark differences between Trudeau and Trump on important issues. One such issue being the topic of immigration. Trump has made it no secret that he wants to clamp down on immigrants coming from specific countries, while Trudeau is willing to welcome them with open arms – something that was noted during Monday’s press conference by reporters.
“One of the things that we spoke about was the fact that security and immigration need to work very well together, certainly Canada has emphasized security as we look to improving our immigration system and remaining true to the values that we have and we had a very strong and fruitful discussion on exactly that. There is plenty that we can draw on each other from as we move forward with a very similar goal to create free open societies that keep our citizens safe,” said Trudeau.
Trump said although discussions with Trudeau have just begun, “We are going to have a great relationship with Canada, maybe good or better hopefully then ever before. We have some wonderful ideas on immigration and some very strong and tough ideas on the tremendous problem that we have with terrorism and I think when we put them all together very, very quickly we will see some very, very obvious results.”
The relationship between the two will be interesting to watch as it develops. Two very different leaders with very different views, opinions and approaches on issues. Of course this could work to both countries’ advantages – it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing that Trudeau and Trump agree on everything either.
Only time will tell as we watch this political landscape unfold.
