How did the prime ministers of Canada end up hiring a lobbying company in Washington for $ 85,000 per US per month? History implies a meeting with Donald Trump Jr.
It was in an encounter with the president’s son that one of them met the head of a lobby company that helped organize the visit of the ministers to Washington this week.
The Federation Council, the group of the 13 provincial and territorial leaders, hired Checkmate Government Relations LLC to help him connect with US officials in the hope of avoiding a commercial war.
Yukon’s Prime Minister Ranj Pillai says that he and his counterparts decided to act at the end of last year, after the surprise resignation of Chrystia Freeland of the Federal Cabinet.
He says that everyone gathered at a Hilton airport in Mississauga, Ontario, at that time, talking about strategy on how to deal with tariff threats and then be raised by President -elect Donald Trump. Three former Washington ambassadors were also in the room, and the old political hands quickly realized from Freeland’s departure was a crisis that impunity to the Trudeau government, and they would mark “a significant change”, how Ottawa would deal with Washington.
“At that time, we all knew we had to do what we could,” Pillai told reporters this week, while the ministers visited the capital of the United States.
He quickly approached the son of the president, whom he had met once before, and was invited to a meeting days later in North Carolina.
Pillai says he raised the issue of commercial tensions. Donald Jr. made it clear that he did not speak for the incoming administration. But among the people of the room there was a young lobbyist who appeared: Charles F. McDowell IV, a hunting friend of the young Trump and a partner of Checkmate Government Relations.
“We were all hanging out. There were several people together,” he said.
Later, Pillai mentioned McDowell to the Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, current president of the Federation Council, who requested ideas when they began planning a Washington visit.
Pillai said he told Ford: “Look, this is someone who I think has an effective ability to deal with the Trump administration or to open the doors.”
The resulting contract is available for public visualization online Thanks to the US Foreign Agents Registration.
The company also employs Chris Lacivita Jr., son of the co -president of the Donald Trump campaign.
The company is new in Washington. It has its roots in North Carolina but it has excited To the capital, like McDowell’s co -founder and brother, Addison McDowell, entered the congress this year.
A Canada voltage source, Fentanyl traffic, Trump’s initial initial justification to impose tariffs, is personal for the family. Another brother of McDowell, Luke, died of fentanyl poisoning in 2016. Last week, the day before what would have been his 29th birthday, Addison McDowell delivered his first speech in the house in support of an anti-fentanyl bill .
“I was only 20 years old. Everything changed for our family,” said the first -year Republican of North Carolina. “There is no day that goes for that we don’t feel the pain of that loss.”
The results of the prime ministers are far from being clear. They obtained meetings with two White House officials of relatively high level, who promised to convey their concerns, but did not offer guarantees.
Several Canadian prime ministers argue what left their meeting with officials of the administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in the White House. The prime ministers were in Washington on Wednesday to present the case against US tariffs on Canadian goods.
But after the meeting, one of those officials, deputy director of Personnel of Legislative Affairs, James Blair, published a tweet that enraged several Canadians, saying that the meeting had been “pleasant” but that: “We never agreed that Canada would not be the State 51 “.
Trump also continued to accumulate verbal abuse in Canada, on Thursday his army and economy agreed again, and added: “I think Canada will be a very serious contender to be our state 51”.
Pillai says he does not want to distract himself with the talk of the status of state. He says he has focused on the immediate problem of preventing tariffs.
“[Let’s] Just focused on the laser in what we have to do. As there is a border problem. We have responded, “he said.
“Donald Trump is not going to own the Arctic and is not going to own Canada. But he will own inflation if these tariffs enter the way they can.”
A source, which spoke with the condition that they were not called, who participated in the visit said the ministers hoped to meet with the president this week, but obtained the meeting they made through their new lobbyist.
Another prime minister insinuated that the company had helped, in fact, helped establish that White House meeting.
“I think it is really important that we are in these rooms,” BC Prime Minister David Eby said.
“This was a short -term meeting with high decision makers.”
He pointed out that it is a week occupied in Washington. Obtaining meetings was not guaranteed.
“I was glad for the conversation,” Eby said. “I’m glad they have done time.”
The Canada team assured a private meeting within the White House as part of the historic joint diplomatic mission of the prime ministers to Washington this week to try to moderate the tariff threats of the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Power & Politics spoke with Yukon Ranj Pillai Prime Minister to listen to his impression of how it was.
