Latest / Kvetch & Release / MP Masse on Gov. Tim Walz & need for strong cross-border relationship

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MP Masse on Gov. Tim Walz & need for strong cross-border relationship · Kvetch & Release

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  Speaker 1: If we've got a US presidential election shaping up, it's
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  Speaker 1: far more exciting than I think a lot of us
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  Speaker 1: thought that it would be. We saw that President Joe
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  Speaker 1: Biden has dropped out. VP Kamala Harris is now the
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  Speaker 1: head of the Democratic ticket. She's brought in this fellow.
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  Speaker 1: You might have heard about him before. He is the
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota Governor, Tim Walls, one guy who has to deal
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  Speaker 1: with our cross border relationships. Is our elected representative for
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  Speaker 1: Windsor West at the federal level. Brian Massey joins me
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  Speaker 1: right now, Hey, Brian, how you doing good?
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  Speaker 2: Thanks here, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. So we were chatting yesterday a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about this fellow, this Governor Tim Walls. Minnesota. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota is about as Canada as you can get in
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  Speaker 1: the US other than I suppose Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. It's got actually almost you know, an undefined
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  Speaker 2: boundary between basically Ontario and then part of Minnesoa Manitoba,
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  Speaker 2: and I think it's like almost nine hundred and nine
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  Speaker 2: thousand kilometers, like it's really large. So they also connected
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  Speaker 2: too the Great Lakes obviously, and that's really important because
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  Speaker 2: water diversion has been an issue with them on the
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  Speaker 2: forefront of that a number of times. In fact, you
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  Speaker 2: go back to even nineteen ninety eight and a company
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  Speaker 2: of a Nova group wanted to ship water to Asia
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  Speaker 2: from the Great Lakes from Lake Superior. So there is
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  Speaker 2: lots of connecting issues. Also dairy and a whole bunch
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  Speaker 2: of other things. So he's very familiar with Canada, which
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  Speaker 2: is good. Have you met the guy, Yeah, I have.
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  Speaker 2: I actually I met him in twenty fifteen when he
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  Speaker 2: was a congressional representative. That was a quick meeting and
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  Speaker 2: then I had to really jog my memory and go
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  Speaker 2: back in my nose. I met him as well too.
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  Speaker 2: I've done so many of these meetings in the Canaday US.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes we met as m a governor as a delegation
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  Speaker 2: of February of twenty twenty with regards to the Canada
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  Speaker 2: US Group going to the National Governors Associations meeting. We
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  Speaker 2: had a private meeting and I had to go back
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  Speaker 2: and look at my notes for all the different stuff
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  Speaker 2: because I've just I've met so many over the years,
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  Speaker 2: and I remember his big hand when we shook hands,
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  Speaker 2: and then also when we were was about infrastructure again,
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  Speaker 2: the same things, and a good thing I keep some
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  Speaker 2: notes because I was trying to put my finger on it,
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  Speaker 2: and I you know, I know I met him. I
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  Speaker 2: knew we had it one quick one and then I
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  Speaker 2: forgot the one off that we had in the Governor's Association,
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  Speaker 2: meaning that was a world one we actually had before
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  Speaker 2: or five governors we met at that event, which was
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  Speaker 2: really interesting and that and he seems really down to earth,
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  Speaker 2: just like you see on TV. And he's got quite
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  Speaker 2: a record. If you look at his record in this past.
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  Speaker 2: He was a blue Dog Democrat. That's when I first
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  Speaker 2: met him. Those are kind of more the fiscal Democrats
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  Speaker 2: that are in the House of Congress. And they also
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  Speaker 2: were ones that voted against the bailout that was done
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  Speaker 2: for the banks. So it's just kind of have an
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  Speaker 2: interesting background. And now as governor, he's even brought in,
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  Speaker 2: you know, programs to feed children in school, so he's
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  Speaker 2: done the stuff that we're actually doing over year two, stuff.
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  Speaker 1: That's really important. And you know, I guess I look
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  Speaker 1: at you know, when you have a governor and the
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  Speaker 1: cross border relationship, the hope is that oh this is
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  Speaker 1: you know, if they win, this could work out well
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  Speaker 1: for Canada because they understand us. They know how important
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  Speaker 1: the trade relationship is and they would want to maintain it.
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  Speaker 1: The flip side of that is, I get concerned where
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  Speaker 1: they go. We know exactly how we can apply pressure
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  Speaker 1: on you Canada to get what we want and extract
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  Speaker 1: from you. Are you at all concerned because of how
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  Speaker 1: close he is to us that he will know the
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  Speaker 1: pressure points.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's no doubt. Like I mean, each group
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  Speaker 2: that we have to deal with comes with different sets
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  Speaker 2: of issues that we have to contest with. Some of
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  Speaker 2: the Democrats can actually be sometimes a little bit more
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  Speaker 2: protected of us and can put up barriers like that
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  Speaker 2: we have it Buy America and a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 2: other things that have come through the Inflation Reduction Act
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  Speaker 2: where we had to compete outside of NAFTA in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the second Trade Agreement that we created, and then
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  Speaker 2: you know, new things were just you know, added the
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  Speaker 2: to the mix. So we have those challenges we have
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  Speaker 2: to deal with at the same time, though, they can
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  Speaker 2: also have more stable relations with us when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to international you know issues and even trade beyond our
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  Speaker 2: borders in North America. So you know, like anything else,
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  Speaker 2: you just have to be prepared and ready. I think
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  Speaker 2: what's different about this election in the US that people
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  Speaker 2: need to be really prepared for is if Trump and
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  Speaker 2: Advance get in this time, they're probably going to be
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  Speaker 2: hitting the ground running a lot harder than they were
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  Speaker 2: at last time because they had transition issues. And so
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  Speaker 2: that's the one thing if you're concerned about where he
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  Speaker 2: leads that country and some of the twenty twenty five
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  Speaker 2: agenda and other stuff like that that they're professing. You know,
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  Speaker 2: they're talking about you know, you know, getting rid of
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  Speaker 2: over a million people, you know, deport having right away,
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  Speaker 2: and these are going to have significant consequences on Canada
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  Speaker 2: because we're right next door and they're talking about millions.
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  Speaker 2: More So, there's some policies that they have that could
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  Speaker 2: be really really difficult for us to even deal on
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  Speaker 2: a practical level.
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  Speaker 1: Well you know, I mean for anyone that's sitting here
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  Speaker 1: going and complaining with the asylum system that we have
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  Speaker 1: and immigration, I mean, I don't want to say immigration
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  Speaker 1: numbers because that has a completely different connotation, but the
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  Speaker 1: situation that does exist when it comes to a side
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  Speaker 1: seekers and refugees is going to definitely be far compounded
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  Speaker 1: if the Trump administration gets re elected. If they come
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  Speaker 1: into power, people aren't going to be fleeing the US southernly.
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  Speaker 1: If they had already made that trek northernly to the
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  Speaker 1: United States, They're just going to continue that trek upwards
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  Speaker 1: if they are facing a threat of deportation or criminalization.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely no, It's a good point. And what I do
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  Speaker 2: like about Walls is that he clearly understands that the
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  Speaker 2: northern border is different than the southern border. That's something
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  Speaker 2: that I spend a lot of time on working well
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  Speaker 2: I'm in Washington at these meetings, is building supports along
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  Speaker 2: the northern border Caucuses, but also advocating to the southern
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  Speaker 2: ones that we don't have the same issues that they
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  Speaker 2: have down with Mexico and other states that come in
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  Speaker 2: and funnel people in from there. We do have some
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  Speaker 2: challenges and some different issues for sure, but we're not
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  Speaker 2: the same as the southern border, and that's a narrative
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  Speaker 2: that we have to really push hard against because if
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  Speaker 2: those policies are implied, and we saw the most recent
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  Speaker 2: one where we were bumped in with everybody with rabies
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  Speaker 2: and dogs, and we don't have a rabia problem in Canada.
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  Speaker 2: And I brought it up to the ambassador again to
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  Speaker 2: the United States. We had dinner and I raise it again.
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  Speaker 2: They seem to think it's solved, it's mostly solved, but
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  Speaker 2: it's again, it's another one of these things that you
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  Speaker 2: may not think it's a big deal, but we have
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  Speaker 2: many truckers. I think it's like twenty five percent have
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  Speaker 2: their dogs go with them, and so there's a number
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  Speaker 2: of different issues that it just creates a lot of
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  Speaker 2: nonsense and a lot of things that we get lumped into.
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  Speaker 2: And so that's kind of a more of a smaller
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  Speaker 2: one in some degrees, but when you start to stack
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  Speaker 2: them all up, it hurts our trade and we have
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  Speaker 2: to compete with the East and Europe, and having this
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  Speaker 2: kind of inefficiencies and being treated like the same thing
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  Speaker 2: as the Mexican border is something that's not appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: Now. It's a unique experience, you know, Brian, I find
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  Speaker 1: it interesting. You've been in office for quite some time.
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  Speaker 1: That's not a knock on your age by any means whatsoever,
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  Speaker 1: my friend, but you've been a constant at least in
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  Speaker 1: my life. I mean I've known you since I was
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  Speaker 1: what ten years old, I'm thirty five. Now you've been
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  Speaker 1: an elected office as long as I've known you at
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  Speaker 1: different levels, You've been through many different administrations in the US,
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  Speaker 1: whether they be Democrat or Republican or more recently TRUMPSM
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  Speaker 1: I suppose, how do you find that the tone changes
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  Speaker 1: as administrations change. What's it like your relationship that you
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  Speaker 1: have when dealing with the bigger issues.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, no, it's I try not to get caught
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  Speaker 2: up in the sensationalism that's often in the general public
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  Speaker 2: and try to find key people to work with on
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  Speaker 2: both sides of the aisle, almost as sign that you
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  Speaker 2: know I try to do in Ottawa and making sure
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  Speaker 2: that you know, we make the institutions work while we
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  Speaker 2: have the time, and you just look for the things
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  Speaker 2: that you can find in common. So, you know, a
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  Speaker 2: good issue is that you know in the Midwestern you
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  Speaker 2: know states, they hate Canada supply management for dairy and
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  Speaker 2: so forth, and so we have to always counter that
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  Speaker 2: with information and knowledge and make sure that we're not
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  Speaker 2: doing it in a way that shuts down talk on
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  Speaker 2: other issues that we do have in common, like the
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  Speaker 2: Great Lakes and other avenues. So that's kind of what
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  Speaker 2: I do, and stay away from the other elements that
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  Speaker 2: seem to be sometimes driving. You know, I guess sensationalism
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  Speaker 2: and you just gravitate to people that want to make
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  Speaker 2: things work. I mean, I worked with, you know, a
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  Speaker 2: gentleman from a Trump administration before who's opposing it was opposing.
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  Speaker 2: He's gone now. He was up in the Sargnier area
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  Speaker 2: port here against the nuclear waste dump that I'm against.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, I find the allies that I need
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  Speaker 2: to do the work that I need to do. And
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  Speaker 2: you know that's time been taken on by Dan Kildee
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  Speaker 2: who's retiring from the Flint area, and so I have
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  Speaker 2: to find a new champion on the US side to
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  Speaker 2: help me with that battle.