Freeland also offered some pointed words when asked about insults that senior White House staffers have hurled at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "The government of Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are the right way to go about foreign policy, to go about foreign relations, particularly when it comes to foreign relations with your close allies and neighbors."
She noted that the Canadian Parliament unanimously backed a resolution condemning the language and observed, "It's very nice to represent a united country."
Freeland was in Washington on a trip planned long before the relations between the two allies veered wildly and unexpectedly off course after President Donald Trump attacked Trudeau last weekend as "very dishonest and weak," and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro declared there was "a special place in hell" for the Canadian leader after he announced Ottawa's decision to apply retaliatory tariffs.
The Trump administration's justification for tariffs on national security grounds "is, frankly, absurd," Freeland said, speaking at the US Capitol after a meeting with senators. "The notion that Canadian steel and aluminum could pose a national security threat to the United States -- I think Americans understand it is simply not the case."
