Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Ontario Mayor Mat Siscoe have been excluded from the annual meeting of White House officials on Friday.
The conference is organized by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence City Initiative, a bilateral alliance of 244 municipal and regional mayors, which will be held as part of the annual Great Lakes Day event in Washington, but specifically with the mayors of the United States.
Alliance spokesman Christine Maydossian told CBC News that the White House has been aware of the meetings over the past month, but on Wednesday it said the mayor of Canada would be unpopular.
“The City Initiative was first informed on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 that only 48 hours before the planned meeting, there was not enough time to handle the mayor’s request due to the diplomatic agreement,” she said.
According to her, Plant and Sisco were replaced by the U.S. mayor at the meeting, according to her.
Stéphane Boyer, mayor of Laval in Quebec, said he was not surprised by this given his current political background.
“They said it was for security reasons and they didn’t have time to check people’s identities,” he told Radio-Canada. “I think it’s a political move to reject Canadian delegates.”
Nonetheless, Boye believes that this decision is unlikely to have a significant impact.
“I believe that the first people who put pressure on Americans were American companies, American citizens, American elected officials, and that’s how we had the opportunity to meet a few of them and try to get them to convey our message.”
Montreal, Laval and Quebec mayor Bruno Marchand travel to the U.S. capital this week. They will continue to meet with other U.S. elected officials (Democrats and Republicans).
On Canadian radio tout un matin Pratt said Thursday morning that the mayor is taking the opportunity to defend President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff and raise awareness of the consequences of the controversial move.
