An alarmed Eby surfaces on CNN after 10-day absence during critical trade talks

PENTICTON - After vanishing from public view for 10 days at the height of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations, British Columbia Premier David Eby appeared on CNN Monday to warn that President Donald Trump is trying to turn Canada into the 51st state..Eby’s last documented in-person appearance was August 12 in Penticton, where he toured the regional emergency operations centre amid the Bald Range wildfire. He then went silent through the most intense phase of the talks, which collapsed late Friday when Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from last-minute American demands.When asked where he was during a press conference on Saturday, Eby said only that he had been in an area with “spotty internet and cell service.” He offered no further details on the location or the reason for his absence. His office later told The Globe and Mail he was on vacation..The premier sent Deputy Premier Niki Sharma to the critical first ministers briefing with Carney last Wednesday. Eby insisted Sharma “did a good capable job” of receiving the update, but he still provided no account of his own whereabouts during the days when Canadian and American negotiators were locked in the final, failed push to avoid 50% U.S. tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods.On Monday, the premier posted a clip of his CNN interview, declaring: “There’s a line, and Donald Trump is trying to cross it. Canada will never be the 51st state.”In the interview, Eby told anchor Sara Sidner that Trump’s words and the rejected deal terms revealed a larger ambition. “He would like Canada to become the 51st state,” Eby said. “We are a separate country. We have our own vision for the country and for where we’d like to go, and we will never be the 51st state.”The idea that the United States could dictate who Canada trades with while imposing 50% tariffs and restricting market access “makes no sense,” he added, “unless you understand that he’s interested in turning Canada into the 51st state."While fellow premiers have taken a more confrontational tone — Manitoba’s Wab Kinew branding Trump a “bad person” who “can’t be trusted” and Ontario’s Doug Ford telling the president he could “kiss my ass” and calling him a “loser” on Monday — Eby’s language on CNN was among the most alarmist of any Canadian leader.In the roughly three-minute interview, Eby invoked the phrase “51st state” three times, or about once per minute.British Columbia stands to take the heaviest hit. Analysis shows the new 50% tariffs will affect a higher share of the province’s U.S. exports than those of any other province, compounding already crushing duties on softwood lumber that have left the forestry sector describing the current situation as the worst it has ever faced.

An alarmed Eby surfaces on CNN after 10-day absence during critical trade talks

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