Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 10, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WILL YOU JOIN OUR MENTORING MOVEMENT? ...and begin your rewarding new journey today! Help us enable life-changing mentoring relationships to ignite the power and potential of young people in Winnipeg! BigWinnipeg.com TOP NEWS A3 MONDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Trump said Canada would be “much better off” as a state, and said he’d be fine with “subsidizing” Canada if it was a state, an apparent reference to the U.S. trade deficit with Canada. Statistics Canada says Canada’s overall trade surplus with the U.S. was $94.4 billion in 2023, primarily due to oil exports. Trump made the statehood comment in re- sponse to a question from Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who asked about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments last week to a group of busi- ness leaders claiming Trump is not joking about making Canada a state. “I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year to Canada and I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump told Baier. “It’s too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now, if they’re a 51st state I don’t mind doing it.” On Friday, Trudeau told a crowd of more than 100 business leaders at a Canada-U.S. economic summit in Toronto that Trump’s comments about making Canada a state are “a real thing.” His comments about Trump were made behind closed doors after reporters were ushered out of the room. The Toronto Star was able to hear what Trudeau was saying because the audio was inadvertently broadcast. Terry Sheehan, the MP for Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., which is home to Algoma Steel, posted to X on Sunday evening that the steel produced in Sault Ste. Marie is “used to make everything from armoured vehicles to the Ambassador Bridge.” Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said in a social media post directed at Trump that there is no scenario where the U.S. will produce enough aluminum to replace what it gets from Quebec before the end of the president’s mandate. He told Trump that he was exposing America’s cutting-edge industries to serious inflation and that he should negotiate instead. Trump initially threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian products due to border security issues around fentanyl and illegal immigration, but the president’s comments con- tinue to focus on trade with Canada, and more re- cently, a perceived lack of U.S. banks in Canada. Border issues remain the official justification for threatening tariffs, according to the presi- dent’s executive order. On Feb. 3, both Canada and Mexico were granted at least 30 days reprieve from the tariffs threat being realized after both Trudeau and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum talked to Trump about their respective border plans. Canada’s plan includes $1.3 billion in spending, first announced in December, on enhanced bor- der security, including patrols with helicopters, and the creation of a “fentanyl czar,” who will work with U.S. counterparts in combating the toxic drug crisis. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force 1 on Sunday as he travelled to the Super Bowl game in New Orleans, Trump continued to threaten a country that has long been one of the U.S.’s clos- est allies. He claimed that Canada is “not viable as a country” without U.S. trade and warned that the founding NATO member can no longer depend on the U.S. for military protection. “You know, they don’t pay very much for mili- tary. And the reason they don’t pay much is they assume that we’re going to protect them,” he said. “That’s not an assumption they can make because — why are we protecting another country?” In the Fox interview, which was pre-taped this weekend in Florida, Trump also said that he has not seen enough action from Canada and Mexico to stave off the tariffs he has threatened to impose on the country’s two largest trading partners once a 30-day extension is up. “No, it’s not good enough,” he said. “Some- thing has to happen. It’s not sustainable. And I’m changing it.” Trump’s participation in the Super Bowl in- terview marked a return to tradition. Presidents have typically granted a sit-down to the network broadcasting the game, the most-watched televi- sion event of the year. But both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, were inconsistent in their participation. Biden declined to participate last year — turn- ing down a massive audience in an election year — and also skipped an appearance in 2023, when efforts by his team to have Biden speak with a Fox Corp. streaming service instead of the main network failed. During his first term, Trump participated three out of four years. Trump was the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl in person — something he told Baier he was surprised to learn. “I thought it would be a good thing for the coun- try to have the president at the game,” he said. During his flight to New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring Feb. 9 “the first ever Gulf of America Day” as Air Force 1 flew over the body of water that he renamed by proc- lamation from the Gulf of Mexico. In the interview Trump also defended the work of billionaire Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been drawing deep concern from Democrats as he moves to shut down whole government agencies and fire large swaths of the federal workforce in the name of rooting out waste and inefficiency. Musk, Trump said, has “been terrific,” and will target the Department of Education and the military next. “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump predicted. “I campaigned on this.” He was also asked about his dancing, which has become a popular meme on social media. “I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I try and walk off sometimes without dancing and I can’t. I have to dance.” — The Canadian Press / The Associated Press BEN CURTIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Aboard Air Force 1 on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, U.S. President Donald Trump said Canada can no longer depend on the U.S. for military protection. TARIFFS ● FROM A1 Local group calls for school trustee election oversight R ETIRED school trustees are lead- ing a new campaign for legislative change so their successors cannot draw their own ward boundaries and must disclose the names of donors who contribute to hyperlocal races across Manitoba. Just Elections’ self-imposed mandate is to promote free and fair school board contests in all 38 divisions in the prov- ince and protect them from “interfer- ence.” Among its demands, the coalition wants to introduce contestant spending limits, ban out-of-province residents and corporate, organization and union donations and ensure anyone who vio- lates reporting rules be penalized. Its members say an independent re- view commission must be established to assess school ward boundaries every 10 years. “When I hear the fact that there are outside people trying to interfere with the democracy of elections of school board trustees… It makes my blood boil,” said Kathy Mallett, co-chair of the non-partisan group made up primarily of inner-city leaders and community or- ganizations. It’s unacceptable that Manitoba has no rules on trustee fundraising, said Mal- lett, who represented West End families on the Winnipeg School Division’s board of trustees in the early ’90s. Unlike candidates for municipal, provincial and federal office, trustee hopefuls do not have to file audited fi- nancial statements or follow financing laws. In the past, individual contestants and organizations, such as the Winnipeg Labour Council, have voluntarily shared endorsements at their discretion. The status quo came into question in October 2022 when a number of candi- dates launched well-funded campaigns with similar professional websites, so- cial media posts and email templates. The apparent co-ordination of cam- paigns in WSD sparked intrigue among voters and veteran board members — many of whom have historically mount- ed self-funded bids or sought small do- nations from friends, neighbours and family members. The Free Press learned Walter Schroeder, a Toronto philanthropist whose foundation has donated millions to local kindergarten-to-Grade 12 pro- jects, was privately sponsoring trustee candidates. None of the incumbents in the last election said they had received finan- cial support from Schroeder, whose controversial proposal to pay for the reinstatement of its police-in-schools program was rejected by the 2018-22 iteration of the board. Following the election, the Manitoba Liberals tabled a private member’s bill to introduce oversight for trustee cam- paign donors and expenses. It wasn’t passed by the legislature. A scan of provincial school board fi- nancing rules conducted by Just Elec- tions shows Manitoba is an outlier. Alberta requires public disclosures of contributions of $50 or more while On- tario prohibits donations that exceed $1,200, per the coalition’s analysis. The Manitoba government’s latest throne speech hinted at incoming legis- lation to “protect our elections and dem- ocracy from third-party and foreign interference” and changes to the next round of school board races. A spokesperson for Education Min- ister Tracy Schmidt indicated work is underway, but it is “very early days.” More information will be revealed in the coming months, Schmidt’s office said. Former trustee Liz Ambrose recalled being overwhelmed by the sheer size of wards in WSD — at the time, hers was larger than a federal riding — when she first ran for a seat on its board more than 30 years ago. She said she was also taken aback by the few campaign requirements for con- testants. “I was quite shocked that I didn’t have to report (my finances) to anybody. I kept my little ledger book for years,” said the co-chair of Just Elections. Ambrose said she’s long chalked up the lack of transparency to there be- ing little public awareness, care or understanding about trustee roles and responsibilities; she credits her initial win in 1995 to her last name beginning with an A and so being listed at the top of ballots. Given organized entities’ growing at- tempts to influence school boards both in Canada and south of the border, she said it’s “high time” that rules be intro- duced and the province stop allowing trustees to set ward boundaries as they please. Just Elections documents categorize the latter as a conflict of interest. The group’s formal presentation sug- gests an independent commission that looks at electoral boundary changes would be “a proactive way to address issues of equity and representation in the governance of our public school board.” maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER ;