Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government and the Trump administration are "aligned" and that the US-Canada border will remain closed to all but essential travel for weeks to come.
“As I have said we do not feel that opening the border anytime soon is likely. My responsibility is to ensure the protection and safety of Canadians, that is what we will continue to do. The conversations with the Americans have been extremely aligned and extremely productive,” Trudeau said Friday during a press briefing.
Some context: President Trump indicated earlier this week that the border may reopen soon, along with other parts of the American economy.
“Our relationship with Canada is very good — we’ll talk about that. It will be one of the early borders to be released,” Trump said.
“Canada’s doing well, we’re doing well — so we’ll see,” he said during a press briefing Wednesday.
The two countries negotiated a mutual ban on non-essential travel in late March. Since then, border traffic has decreased dramatically except for commercial goods and essential workers.
As the President has discussed the reopening of the US economy, anxiety has been building in Canadian border towns that have not been as severely affected by Covid-19 as their cross-border neighbors.
"Trudeau should say no right away," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Thursday. "Until we have this under containment, we need to have our borders closed."