Federal Election: Threat of U.S. trade war critical factor for South Surrey-White Rock voters
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With a sweep of his arm, Tim Shum identifies his top concern ahead of Canada's federal election.
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'Tariffs and the economy,' he says, indicating the source of his unease beyond the end of the White Rock pier, where Washington State is visible across the bay.
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Even on the best days, when sunshine and an ocean breeze put people in a good mood, the threat of American interference is hard to ignore in South Surrey-White Rock, a border riding that could be heavily impacted by a trade war.
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Canada 338, a national poll aggregator, predicts a close race in South Surrey-White Rock, as well as several other Surrey ridings, including Surrey Centre and Cloverdale-Langley City. The leaders of the two main parties have visited Surrey multiple times, with Carney making a quick stop at the White Rock waterfront last week and Poilievre popping in at a Fruiticana store on Easter Sunday.
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About 20 per cent of Surrey's businesses, including 113 import and export businesses and 900 transportation and warehousing firms, have trade ties with the U.S., according to earlier figures shared by Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke. Those ties represent $2.8 billion in cross-border commerce each year.
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'Annexation, no way,' she said.
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So is Lee Spencer, who paused to say he is worried about 'years of over-expenditure' by the Liberal government.
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Robert Macdonald, a camera slung over his shoulder and a cup of ice cream in his hand, said he was disillusioned by both parties and their candidates and wants proportional representation.
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Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Coming to America? In 2025, the US to some looks less like a dream and more like a place to avoid
LONDON (AP) — The world may be rethinking the American dream. For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump's drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about the virtues and promise of coming to America. 'The message coming from Washington is that you are not welcome in the United States,' said Edwin van Rest, CEO of Studyportals, which tracks real-time searches by international students considering studying in other countries. Student interest in studying in America has dropped to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, it found. 'The fact is, there are great opportunities elsewhere.' There has long been a romanticized notion about immigration and America. The reality has always been different, with race and ethnicity playing undeniable roles in the tension over who can be an American. The U.S. still beckons to the 'huddled masses' from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The strong economy has helped draw millions more every year, with the inflow driving the U.S. population over 340 million. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Early clues across industries — like tourism, trade, entertainment and education — suggest the American dream is fading for foreigners who have historically flooded to the U.S. Polling by Pew Research Center from January through April found that opinions of the U.S. have worsened over the past year in 15 of the 24 countries it surveyed. Trump and many of his supporters maintain that migrants in the country illegally threaten American safety, jobs and culture. But people in the country legally also have been caught in Trump's dragnet. And that makes prospective visitors to the U.S., even as tourists, leery. Trump's global tariff war and his campaign against international students who have expressed pro-Palestinian sympathies stick especially stubbornly in the minds of people across American borders who for decades clamored to participate in the land of free speech and opportunity. 'The chances of something truly horrific happening are almost certainly tiny,' Duncan Greaves, 62, of Queensland, Australia, advised a Reddit user asking whether to risk a vacation to the land of barbeques, big sky country and July 4 fireworks. 'Basically it's like the Dirty Harry quote: 'Do you feel lucky?'' 'American Creed,' American dilemma For much of its history, America had encouraged immigration as the country sought intellectual and economic fuel to spur its growth. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW But from the beginning, the United States has wrestled with the question of who is allowed to be an American. The new country was built on land brutally swiped from Native Americans. It was later populated by millions of enslaved Africans. The American Civil War ignited in part over the same subject. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for a decade. During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Still, the United States has always been a nation of immigrants, steered by the 'American Creed' developed by Thomas Jefferson, which posits that the tenets of equality, hard work and freedom are inherently American. Everyone, after all, comes from somewhere — a fact underscored on-camera in the Oval Office this month when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave the president the framed birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, also named Friedrich, who emigrated from Germany in 1885. He was one of millions of Germans who fled war and economic strife to move to the United States in the late 19th Century. There's a story there, too, that suggests the Trump family knows both the triumphs of immigration and the struggle and shame of being expelled. After marrying and making a fortune in America, the elder Trump attained U.S. citizenship and tried return to Germany. He was expelled for failing to complete his military service — and wrote about the experience. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family,' Friedrich Trump wrote to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria in 1905, according to a translation in Harper's magazine. 'What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur.' Trump himself has married two immigrant women: the late Ivana Zelníčková Trump, of what's now the Czech Republic, and his current wife, Melania Knauss Trump of Slovenia. They're still coming to America. To Trump, that's long been a problem It's hard to overstate the degree to which immigration has changed the face and culture of America — and divided it. Immigration in 2024 drove U.S. population growth to its fastest rate in 23 years as the nation surpassed 340 million residents, the U.S. Census Bureau said in December. Almost 2.8 million more people immigrated to the United States last year than in 2023, partly because of a new method of counting that adds people who were admitted for humanitarian reasons. Net international migration accounted for 84% of the nation's 3.3 million-person increase in the most recent data reported. Immigration accounted for all of the growth in 16 states that otherwise would have lost population, according to the Brookings Institution. But where some Americans see immigration largely as an influx of workers and brain power, Trump sees an 'invasion,' a longstanding view. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Since returning to the White House, Trump has initiated an far-reaching campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him over his invocation of special powers to deport people, cancel visas and deposit deportees in third countries. In his second term, unlike his first, he's not retreating from some unpopular positions on immigration. Instead, the subject has emerged as Trump's strongest issue in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment. A June survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade. The poll was conducted at the beginning of the Los Angeles protests and did not include questions about Trump's military deployment to the city. Other countries, such as Denmark, open their doors The U.S. is still viewed as an economic powerhouse, though people in more countries consider China to be the world's top economy, according to the Pew poll, and it's unclear whether Trump's policies could cause a meaningful drain of international students and others who feel under siege in the United States. Netherlands-based Studyportals, which analyzes the searches for international schools by millions of students worldwide, reported that weekly pageviews for degrees in the U.S, collapsed by half between Jan. 5 and the end of April. It predicted that if the trend continues, the demand for programs in the U.S. could plummet further, with U.S. programs losing ground to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. 'International students and their families seek predictability and security when choosing which country to trust with their future,' said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, which represents international educators. 'The U.S. government's recent actions have naturally shaken their confidence in the United States.'
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Coming to America? In 2025, the US to some looks less like a dream and more like a place to avoid
LONDON (AP) — The world may be rethinking the American dream. For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump's drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about the virtues and promise of coming to America. 'The message coming from Washington is that you are not welcome in the United States,' said Edwin van Rest, CEO of Studyportals, which tracks real-time searches by international students considering studying in other countries. Student interest in studying in America has dropped to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, it found. 'The fact is, there are great opportunities elsewhere.' There has long been a romanticized notion about immigration and America. The reality has always been different, with race and ethnicity playing undeniable roles in the tension over who can be an American. The U.S. still beckons to the 'huddled masses' from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The strong economy has helped draw millions more every year, with the inflow driving the U.S. population over 340 million. Early clues across industries — like tourism, trade, entertainment and education — suggest the American dream is fading for foreigners who have historically flooded to the U.S. Polling by Pew Research Center from January through April found that opinions of the U.S. have worsened over the past year in 15 of the 24 countries it surveyed. Trump and many of his supporters maintain that migrants in the country illegally threaten American safety, jobs and culture. But people in the country legally also have been caught in Trump's dragnet. And that makes prospective visitors to the U.S., even as tourists, leery. Trump's global tariff war and his campaign against international students who have expressed pro-Palestinian sympathies stick especially stubbornly in the minds of people across American borders who for decades clamored to participate in the land of free speech and opportunity. 'The chances of something truly horrific happening are almost certainly tiny,' Duncan Greaves, 62, of Queensland, Australia, advised a Reddit user asking whether to risk a vacation to the land of barbeques, big sky country and July 4 fireworks. 'Basically it's like the Dirty Harry quote: 'Do you feel lucky?'' 'American Creed,' American dilemma For much of its history, America had encouraged immigration as the country sought intellectual and economic fuel to spur its growth. But from the beginning, the United States has wrestled with the question of who is allowed to be an American. The new country was built on land brutally swiped from Native Americans. It was later populated by millions of enslaved Africans. The American Civil War ignited in part over the same subject. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for a decade. During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Still, the United States has always been a nation of immigrants, steered by the 'American Creed' developed by Thomas Jefferson, which posits that the tenets of equality, hard work and freedom are inherently American. Everyone, after all, comes from somewhere — a fact underscored on-camera in the Oval Office this month when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave the president the framed birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, also named Friedrich, who emigrated from Germany in 1885. He was one of millions of Germans who fled war and economic strife to move to the United States in the late 19th Century. There's a story there, too, that suggests the Trump family knows both the triumphs of immigration and the struggle and shame of being expelled. After marrying and making a fortune in America, the elder Trump attained U.S. citizenship and tried return to Germany. He was expelled for failing to complete his military service — and wrote about the experience. 'Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family,' Friedrich Trump wrote to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria in 1905, according to a translation in Harper's magazine. 'What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur.' Trump himself has married two immigrant women: the late Ivana Zelníčková Trump, of what's now the Czech Republic, and his current wife, Melania Knauss Trump of Slovenia. They're still coming to America. To Trump, that's long been a problem It's hard to overstate the degree to which immigration has changed the face and culture of America — and divided it. Immigration in 2024 drove U.S. population growth to its fastest rate in 23 years as the nation surpassed 340 million residents, the U.S. Census Bureau said in December. Almost 2.8 million more people immigrated to the United States last year than in 2023, partly because of a new method of counting that adds people who were admitted for humanitarian reasons. Net international migration accounted for 84% of the nation's 3.3 million-person increase in the most recent data reported. Immigration accounted for all of the growth in 16 states that otherwise would have lost population, according to the Brookings Institution. But where some Americans see immigration largely as an influx of workers and brain power, Trump sees an 'invasion,' a longstanding view. Since returning to the White House, Trump has initiated an far-reaching campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him over his invocation of special powers to deport people, cancel visas and deposit deportees in third countries. In his second term, unlike his first, he's not retreating from some unpopular positions on immigration. Instead, the subject has emerged as Trump's strongest issue in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment. A June survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade. The poll was conducted at the beginning of the Los Angeles protests and did not include questions about Trump's military deployment to the city. Other countries, such as Denmark, open their doors The U.S. is still viewed as an economic powerhouse, though people in more countries consider China to be the world's top economy, according to the Pew poll, and it's unclear whether Trump's policies could cause a meaningful drain of international students and others who feel under siege in the United States. Netherlands-based Studyportals, which analyzes the searches for international schools by millions of students worldwide, reported that weekly pageviews for degrees in the U.S, collapsed by half between Jan. 5 and the end of April. It predicted that if the trend continues, the demand for programs in the U.S. could plummet further, with U.S. programs losing ground to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. 'International students and their families seek predictability and security when choosing which country to trust with their future,' said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, which represents international educators. 'The U.S. government's recent actions have naturally shaken their confidence in the United States.'
Cision Canada
5 hours ago
- Cision Canada
Readout - Prime Minister Carney meets with Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese Français
CALGARY, AB, June 15, 2025 /CNW/ - Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, met with the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, ahead of the 2025 G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. Prime Minister Carney underscored the many areas of close co-operation between Canada and Australia, particularly in trade, defence, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific. As Five Eyes partners, Prime Minister Carney shared his government's plan to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces, including through co-operation with Australia on projects such as Over-the-Horizon Radar. The leaders shared opportunities for further partnership, including on critical minerals and wildfire response. To that end, Canadians thank Prime Minister Albanese for the deployment of Australian firefighters to assist with efforts to combat Alberta wildfires and convey their gratitude to all those brave women and men on the ground keeping communities safe. As the world becomes increasingly dangerous, Canada and Australia will deepen their bilateral relationship and build shared growth. The prime ministers agreed to remain in close contact. This document is also available at
