The premier of a Canadian province launched a blistering attack on U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him a “bad person” and “not to be trusted” and urging Canada to keep fighting rather than rush to make concessions in trade talks with Washington.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Canada has leverage in the talks even as his province weighs restoring U.S. alcohol sales at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s urging to help secure a deal that would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs.
“Everybody knows the American president by now, he’s erratic, he’s irresponsible, and he’s not to be trusted. And this is the person that we were supposed to make a deal with, and we’re going to make additional concessions for it. That’s why I say you can’t make a good deal with a bad person, because who’s to say it’s not going to be undone?” Kinew said.
I got confused at the headline for a moment because I didn’t realize “premier” means something specific in Canada. In most countries it means Prime Minister or President.
Premier is essentially the same as a United States Governor. Premier’s lead the Province.
This is essentially incorrect. Canadian provinces use a parliamentary system very similar to the federal government. The Premier of a province is analogous to the Prime Minister of the country, but for a single province.
The Premier in not elected separately like a US Governor, nor does he act separately from the legislature of the province. He’s the leader of the party that holds the most seats in the Legislature and forms the Government of the province.
Essentially incorrect but still analogous
Well, I object to the need to somehow relate everything to an American frame of reference. The two systems are fundamentally different, and the roles are not really analogous. Far better to say, “Like a Prime Minister, but for a province.” What’s hard about that?
Yeah, it should have been capitalized as it’s a formal title.
It looks like a lot of people made the same mistake, because AP seem to have now edited the headline on their site to clarify.