Senators go to Canada to meet PM Carney, smooth Trump tariff, 51st-state tensions

A bipartisan group of senators, led by North Dakota Republican Kevin Cramer and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, recently traveled to Ottawa, Ontario, to help ease rising tensions between the U.S. and Canada.

The quintet, which also included Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., was photographed glad-handing Prime Minister Mark Carney, a liberal who had been aided in his election over conservative favorite Pierre Poilievre in part due to American right-wing overtures.

As the lone Republican, Cramer was in the difficult spot of balancing representing the president’s party and engendering goodwill with Carney, whose government has been targeted by U.S. tariffs and pledges by President Donald Trump to be made the "51st state."

He did not respond to a Fox News request for comment in that regard, but Kaine told Punchbowl News that Trump respects Cramer and his "insight and loyalty."

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"That means the president can probably hear some things from him that, if I said it, I wouldn’t get paid attention to," Kaine said.

In a statement, Cramer said the two nations share "more than a border" and that working through challenges requires "frank dialogue."

"I was encouraged by the meetings, and the Prime Minister’s transparent and thoughtful words were smart and instructive. I look forward to working with our friends, business partners, and neighbors in Canada to strengthen our relationship and address mutual issues facing our great countries," he added.

The delegation, joined by Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, a former border-state congressman from Michigan, was geared toward joint defense and economic priorities, according to Cramer.

The White House directed Fox News Digital to the State Department when asked about its response to the diplomatic overture from Cramer and the four Democrats. But Foggy Bottom did not provide comment for the record.

But Cramer told Punchbowl he didn’t want to get in Trump’s way and that no trade deal could happen without the White House but that Canada needs to know they have a partner in the U.S.

"Hopefully I navigated it OK, but I’ll find out on Truth Social," he said.

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Kaine plans to force a Senate vote on a resolution to block Trump’s China tariffs if détente isn’t reached between Ottawa and Washington. 

His office directed Fox News Digital to a Punchbowl story on the matter, where the Virginian was quoted saying that there will be negative effects on the U.S. economy if "this doesn’t get sorted out."

"I hope I don’t need to," Kaine said.

The U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian steel, automobiles and other goods not currently covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Canada retaliated by imposing $43 billion worth of its own tariffs against the U.S.

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"We’ve got more that we need to do before we’re satisfied that we have a partnership that is in Canada’s interest. We’ve made a lot of progress," Carney said Tuesday after the visit concluded.

Every congressional participant except Kaine hails from a state that borders Canada. One report said that annual Canadian visitation to Cramer’s North Dakota outnumbers its own population, while Welch has been vocal about Vermont’s symbiotic reliance on Canadian residents’ dollars, especially in its recreation sector.

"The U.S.-Canada relationship has made us all safer and more prosperous, protecting our continent from foreign threats and transforming North America into a hub of global trade, innovation and investment," Welch said in a statement co-signed by the other lawmakers.

"The trip has reaffirmed our joint desire to move past current tensions in the bilateral relationship and lay the groundwork for a stronger partnership moving forward."