But David Eby also says ambassador’s remarks show travel boycotts, booze bans are working.
B.C. Premier David Eby said he believes U.S. leadership has “very little awareness” of how offensive their remarks are, like the U.S. ambassador to Canada saying President Donald Trump thinks Canadians are “nasty” to deal with because of U.S. boycotts.
“Do they think Canadians are not going to respond when the president says, ‘I want to turn you into the 51st state and beggar you economically unless you bow to the U.S.’?” Eby said in an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics
Monday evening in Huntsville, Ont., where premiers are meeting this week.“Obviously, Canadians are outraged.” Ambassador Pete
Hoekstra made the remarks about Canadians avoiding U.S. travel and booze when he was speaking at the annual Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Foundation summit in Bellevue, Wash. The Canadian Press was provided with a recording of the ambassador’s comments by Eby’s office, which said it received the audio from someone who was in the audience.
Boycotts ‘having an impact,’ says Eby
Eby said in a statement that Hoekstra’s remarks show Canadians’ efforts to stand up to Trump are “having an impact,” and he encouraged people to “keep it up.”
The ambassador made the remarks in response to a question from a conference moderator about what could be done to get people travelling again as Vancouver and Seattle prepare to host games as part of next year’s FIFA World Cup.
“Canadians staying home, that’s their business, you know. I don’t like it, but if that’s what they want to do, it’s fine. They want to ban American alcohol. That’s fine,” Hoekstra said.
“There are reasons why the president and some of his team referred to Canada as being mean and nasty to deal with, OK, because of some of those steps.”…
Source: cbc.ca/news/politics
