New England’s governors and eastern Canadian premiers planned to meet Monday in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, at a sensitive time for the endangered North American Free Trade Agreement.
Officials in the Canadian government — and particularly in New Brunswick — see Gov. Paul LePage as a key intermediary between them and President Donald Trump, who warned last week that the U.S. may terminate the trade deal. Renegotiations on it started last week.
LePage’s role was highlighted in an article last week in the Telegraph-Journal in Saint John, New Brunswick. Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s progressive foreign affairs minister, has said she talks to the governor often, calling him an “influential voice in this administration.”
The governor has a personal history in New Brunswick. He managed a forestry business owned by his ex-wife’s family there in the 1970s, and two of his daughters still live there.
There’s a practical reason for all of the praise from Canada: Maine and New Brunswick have a close trade relationship, but the Trump administration placed new tariffs on softwood imports from most of Canada earlier this year.
J.D. Irving Ltd., a Canadian behemoth that owns softwood mills in Canada and Maine, won a lower rate for operations in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with support from Maine’s U.S. senators, but the larger tariff remains for other operators. LePage sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Wilbur Ross earlier this month arguing Maine already has lost jobs because of the tariffs.
It’s unclear whether the governor or others wield enough influence in Trump’s administration to change trade policy with the Canadians. He was supposed to argue for New Brunswick’s position in a June meeting with Trump, but the CBC reported that the subject didn’t come up.
Canadian Sen. Percy Mockler, who lives just across the border with Van Buren in the New Brunswick town of Saint Leonard, met with LePage on Tuesday in Limestone to discuss lumber, energy and agriculture. The governor’s office didn’t answer a request for comment. Mockler did.
He called it a “first” since he got into politics in 1982 that “we have a governor that can speak to the president” in Maine, praising LePage for “a no-nonsense approach” to trade politics and calling him a “conduit” to Trump.
“I left the meeting assured that the governor clearly understands and believes that what is good for Maine is good for New Brunswick and what is good for New Brunswick is good for Maine,” Mockler said. “So, this will continue to create a positive atmosphere going forward because like him, our objective is to create and retain good-paying jobs for our people.”
This item was originally published in Daily Brief, a free political newsletter distributed Monday through Friday by the Bangor Daily News to inform dialogue about Maine politics and government. To read more of today’s Daily Brief, click here. To have the Daily Brief delivered daily to your inbox, click here.