Quebec, Ontario mayors excluded from White House meeting, diplomatic protocol cited

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante speaks at a press conference in Montreal on Nov. 19, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

MONTREAL — Amid the trade war between Canada and the United States, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and St. Catharine’s, Ont., Mayor Mat Siscoe have been denied accreditation for a meeting at the White House, according to the group who requested the meeting.

The two mayors are in Washington, D.C., for a gathering of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a group of municipal and Indigenous government leaders who represent the region on both sides of the border.

A spokesperson for the cities initiative says the names of Plante, Siscoe, and a mayor from an American city were submitted earlier this week ahead of Friday’s meeting, scheduled as part of the annual Great Lakes Day event in Washington.

“After providing the three names, the cities initiative was informed on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, for the first time and just 48 hours before the planned meeting, that due to diplomatic protocol, there wasn’t enough time to process the requests of the Canadian mayors,” the cities initiative said in a statement.

Instead, three American mayors will attend the meeting at the White House. Asked who from the White House will be present at the meeting, a spokesperson for the cities initiative said that was confidential.

U.S. and Canadian mayors from the cities initiative “have regularly been attending meetings at the White House during the annual Great Lakes Day event in Washington for many years with similar timelines and no obstacles,” the group said. Meetings have traditionally focused on preserving and restoring the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin, it added.

Friday’s meeting comes amid rising tensions between Canada and the United States following the imposition earlier this week of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products by U.S. President Donald Trump, and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that pauses tariffs on some Canadian imports linked to the auto industry that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, and also lowers levies on potash to 10 per cent.

In a statement earlier this week, Plante said she hoped to use her visit to Washington to speak with her cross-border counterparts about the adverse impacts of tariffs on the U.S. economy. “Citizens of both countries will suffer the consequences of this economic war and it is our duty, as a city, to do everything in our power to preserve as many ties as possible with our allies,” she said Tuesday.

Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand, Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer and Hamilton, Ont., Mayor Andrea Horwath were also among the nearly 30 elected officials from both sides of the border who were in Washington as part of the Great Lakes group.

In an email, Horwath described the exclusion of the Canadian mayors from Friday’s meeting as “disappointing,” adding, “my understanding is that this is a break from the way things have been done for many years prior.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.